The construction in the south of France of Iter, the future nuclear fusion reactor, risks taking a serious delay. This international research project, which brings together seven partners: China, South Korea, United States, India, Japan, Russia and the European Union, aims to revolutionize energy production.
But the new director general of ITER, the Italian Pietro Barabaschi announced on Friday that the site was facing new technical problems following the discovery of construction defects on the heat shields which must be subjected to extreme heat.
“We have two problems,” he explains. First “problem”: “dimensional non-conformities”, in other words, differences of up to two centimeters between the parts which must be welded together to form the “vacuum chamber”, i.e. a gigantic loop in the shape of an inner tube where the fusion reaction will take place.
And repairs might take years. Not to mention the financial consequences estimated at several tens of billions of euros. Originally, ITER aimed to achieve its first plasma in 2025 and further tests in 2035.
