Europe contributing almost half of €20 billion cost of reactor’s construction
The US Iter organisation has completed final deliveries for the central solenoid magnet for the €20bn ($23.4bn) International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter) nuclear fusion project in Cadarache, southern France.
The most recent deliveries included busbars and leads for electrical connections between the modules.
Earlier, all magnet modules, support structures and tooling components had been delivered.
The central solenoid magnet consists of six individual sections, or modules, each wound from about 6 km of niobium-tin superconducting cable and weighing more than 122.5 tonnes.
Each module required more than two years to fabricate, followed by testing and then shipment to France. Five of the modules are already in place. The central solenoid is the “backbone” of the Iter fusion reactor’s magnet system, allowing a powerful current to be induced in the Iter plasma and maintained during long plasma pulses.
In June 2024 the director-general of the Iter project announced a new schedule that aims for initial operation in 2035.
Europe is contributing 45.6% of the cost of Iter’s construction. The other members of the venture – China, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the US – are contributing the rest at 9.1% each.
According to Iter, the members contribute very little monetary contribution to the project. Instead, nine-tenths of contributions are delivered in the form of completed components, systems or buildings.
