Reply To: turn heat into electricity

[asymmetric_implosion]

My problem with ITER is technical. As of a few weeks ago at the burning plasma meeting before the APS Division of Plasma Physics meeting, a member of the ITER team stood up with the latest projections for achieving breakeven. To sustain the plasma temperature, 80 MW of continuous heating is required. The budget does not allow for it so the immediate response was to cut back the diagnostics. How can you gather data when you don’t have diagnostics? The materials issues of ITER are difficult but the scale up to DEMO are nearly impossible. It needs a new wall every few days in some calculations and every month of so otherwise. If DEMO is to be a demonstration power plant how can you operate such a facility cost effectively? Lithium may help some of the first wall problems but I’m not convinced it will fix the problem.

The politics of ITER are daunting and I don’t fault the scientists for the politics. It is a difficult problem politically and in the face of changes in the EU and US I find it amazing that projects like ITER can continue. I hope ITER can succeed but the political problems are growing and the technical issues seem to be cropping up. Even some close to ITER suspect it might only get partly built if built at all.