This Giant Magnet Can Lift an Aircraft Carrier—and Possibly Power the Future
The most powerful pulsed superconducting magnet system ever built is now complete, and will soon be part of the world's grandest energy experiment.
The system is the Central Solenoid of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), a towering magnet core built and tested in the United States and destined for southern France, where the international project is assembling its gigantic tokamak. The magnet system will serve as the electromagnetic 'heart' of the reactor, strong enough—according to ITER—to lift a freaking aircraft carrier.
For the uninitiated: Tokamaks are doughnut-shaped vessels that contain superheated plasma for nuclear fusion, the energetic reaction that powers stars like our Sun. Tokamaks constrain the plasma by generating very strong magnetic fields, hence the importance of ITER's Central Solenoid.
ITER is dedicated to validating nuclear fusion as a viable energy source, though none of the reactor's output will be used to power anything. ITER is simply a gigantic and expensive technology demonstrator, one that's inching increasingly closer to actually flipping the 'on' switch to recreate the power of the Sun here on Earth. It's an expansive collaboration involving over 30 countries, aiming to prove that fusion energy—basically, slamming atoms together until they produce different atoms, releasing massive amounts of energy in the process—can be harnessed and scaled into a commercially viable and essentially limitless power source.
The newly completed magnet system isn't going to work alone. The Central Solenoid joins six massive ring-shaped Poloidal Field magnets built and delivered from Europe, China, and Russia, forming a 3,000-ton (2,721 tonne) system of superconductors cooled to -452.2 degrees Fahrenheit (-269 degrees Celsius). Together, the supercooled magnets will trap and shape scorching plasma at 270 million degrees Fahrenheit (50 million degrees C)—ten times hotter than the Sun's core—until atomic nuclei fuse and let out a tenfold energy return.
Commercially viable fusion has long been the clean energy grail, and ITER's setup is expected to generate 500 megawatts of energy from just 50 megawatts of input. That kind of power return would mark the start of self-sustaining 'burning plasma'—though there's a long road to that goal.
Private companies are attempting to demonstrate smaller-scale tokamak designs as a potential way to realize the future of fusion, though neither approach has had its breakthrough moment to date.
In 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced net energy gain in a fusion reaction at the National Ignition Facility—but even that high-water-mark did not account for 'wall power' used in the experiment, making it another incremental step in the marathon towards viable fusion power, rather than a shortcut to the finish line.
ITER isn't just a physics experiment—it's a geopolitical flex. Despite tensions between member countries, the project has delivered on component construction and hit its 2024 construction targets. (The collaboration also launched a private sector fusion project last year for sharing data and furthering the project's R&D goals). The U.S. built the solenoid and support structure, Europe is handling the vacuum chamber, Russia provided the reactor's massive superconductors and busbars, while Korea, Japan, China, and India have all contributed vital parts of the tokamak's core.
'With ITER, we show that a sustainable energy future and a peaceful path forward are possible,' said Pietro Barabaschi, ITER's Director-General, in a collaboration release. Of course, ITER has yet to realize the 'sustainable energy future' part of its project, so don't hold your breath for the peaceful future, either.
Now in its assembly phase, ITER is building up steam towards its actual goals—a slight increase in momentum from the collaboration's plodding steps in producing its constituent parts. If it works, this magnetized machine could be a watershed moment towards a carbon-free energy future—even if it does not contribute to the power grid itself.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNN
5 hours ago
- CNN
New tech reveals never-before-seen details in solar corona
A breakthrough in adaptive optics technology captured the clearest images to date of the sun's corona. The incredible resolution of the new images could provide new insights on some of the mysteries surrounding our star.
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
June's Strawberry Moon ushers in best time of year to view the Moon
Known as the Strawberry Moon, the last full Moon of spring rises early Wednesday, beginning the best time of year to enjoy our celestial neighbor. Dr. Tyler Richey-Yowell, a postdoctoral fellow at Lowell Observatory in Arizona, said this is the first Moon to appear this low on the horizon in about a year. June's full Moon is the last of astronomical spring, even though if you ask a meteorologist, summer is already in full swing. "The Moon going across the night sky is always going to be a little lower because, in the summertime into the summer, the Sun goes higher and higher in the sky just because of our orbit. And so the Moon, being completely opposite of that, gets lower and lower," she said. Moon Shot: 7 Tips On How To Photograph The Moon The Strawberry Moon gets its name from the time when the berry is ready for picking, but it also corresponds with the slight hue as the Moon is lower in the sky. "When it spends more of that time in that lower portion of the sky, you're looking through more of Earth's atmosphere, which makes these moons generally look redder and more golden. And also, they appear bigger," Richey-Yowell said. "The atmosphere actually bends some of the light. And so while there's not really any astronomical significance to moons in the summer, we do actually get cooler, bigger, prettier moons in the summer." For some in the northern tier and Southeast, the Strawberry Moon may be especially colorful this year. Saharan dust arriving to Florida and crawling up the Southeast coast can also scatter light in a way that creates vibrant sunrises and sunsets, as well as a tint to the Moon. In the North, wildfire smoke from Canada has reduced air quality but also had the same effect on the sky color. Richey-Yowell said the best time to enjoy the Moon throughout the summer is right after sunset, when the Moon is peeking up over the horizon. During this time, the Moon can appear to have a reddish tint. For the Strawberry Moon on Wednesday, it will be at its biggest and brightest after midnight (Pacific time) and after 3 a.m. (Eastern time). How To Photograph The Moon With Your Phone "If you're a night person, that would be the time to go up and see it," she said. With an earlier time of day to see the Moon in late spring and this summer, it's a good chance to practice photographing our only satellite. If you plan to use a smartphone or camera, Richey-Yowell recommends finding something to stabilize your device. "Turning down the saturation on your phone is typically what I do. The Moon's actually just really good for holding up to a telescope as well," she said. "They also make some really nice like phone holders that you can attach to your own personal telescope." The Strawberry Moon will make good practice for next month. The full Buck Moon appears at its fullest just after 4 p.m. ET on July 11, which will make for a spectacular sunset and article source: June's Strawberry Moon ushers in best time of year to view the Moon
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
NASA's Parker Solar Probe spots powerful magnetic explosion aimed at the sun's surface
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. While making a death-defying dive through the sun's atmosphere, NASA's Parker Solar Probe has directly recorded a powerful plasma explosion heading toward our star's surface in unprecedented detail. Parker's new measurements found protons with about 1000 times greater energy than expected and a plasma jet shooting toward the sun, not away from it. Parker was uniquely positioned between the sun and the particles' source, allowing scientists to easily figure out where they came from. These findings indicate that the complexity and strength of tangles in the sun's magnetic field can accelerate charged particles to much greater speeds than expected from the field's strength alone. The sunward plasma jet was caused by "magnetic reconnection" in the sun's atmosphere — the explosive process in which magnetic fields fracture and reconnect. The powerful phenomenon transforms energy stored in the sun's magnetic field into energy that accelerates the solar wind — the constant stream of charged particles that the sun blasts across the solar system. Understanding magnetic reconnection is critical for making better predictions about space weather, which is driven by the solar wind and other energetic outbursts from our star. Space weather is a primary suspect for what stripped away Mars' atmosphere, turning it from a habitable planet into an icy desert wasteland. On Earth, space weather can trigger geomagnetic storms that cause blackouts, damage satellites, interfere with radio and GPS signals, and even put astronauts at risk. On the bright side, it also gives Earth its signature glorious auroras. The sun's magnetic field is extremely powerful, complex and dynamic. Space weather predictions require complicated computer simulations based on equations that describe how magnetic fields behave — but the sun is so large and convoluted that these equations will always be approximations. To improve the models' accuracy, scientists must collect extremely detailed measurements of the sun. This is where the Parker Solar Probe comes in. The Parker Solar Probe is the first mission to fly into the sun's upper atmosphere, called the corona. It has been directly measuring magnetic fields and particles in and around the corona in unprecedented detail, providing scientific insight into the heliosphere (the sun's atmosphere, which encompasses the entire solar system in a massive, elongated bubble). Related: NASA's daredevil solar spacecraft survives 2nd close flyby of our sun "These findings indicate that magnetic reconnection … is an important source of energetic particles in the near-Sun solar wind," lead study author Mihir Desai, director of the Southwest Research Institute's Department of Space Research, said in a statement. "Everywhere there are magnetic fields there will be magnetic reconnection. But the Sun's magnetic fields are much stronger near the star, so there's a lot more stored energy to be released." Understanding the workings of magnetic reconnection events could help scientists better predict harmful space weather, the researchers said. RELATED STORIES —New 8K-resolution photos of the sun show off incredible details of raging sunspots —Space photo of the week: Pink 'raindrops' on the sun captured in greatest detail ever —Powerful Mother's Day geomagnetic storm created radio-disrupting bubbles in Earth's upper atmosphere "Reports from the American Meteorological Society indicated that the powerful solar events in May 2024 wreaked havoc with farmers when extreme geomagnetic storms disrupted the precise GPS-guided navigation systems used to plant, fertilize and harvest rows of seeds, causing an estimated loss of up to $500 million in earning potential," Desai said. "Parker's access to this new data is critical, particularly as we remain in the midst of a very active solar cycle." The latest measurements of magnetic reconnection, reported in a paper published May 29 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, are one of many new discoveries Parker has made. In 2023, over 700 peer-reviewed scientific papers were published using data collected in the probe's first four years of operation, and there are still many more discoveries to be made. The spacecraft completed its second ultra-close flyby of the sun on March 22, zooming within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the sun's surface — matching its own record from December 2024.
