The world's strongest magnet is used in the global nuclear fusion project

The world's strongest magnet is now ready for assembly as part of a much-delayed project that involves more than 30 countries. This project, which has been delayed by many years, is a crucial component in efforts to produce clean energy through smashing atoms at high temperatures.

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project (ITER), based in southern France, and supported by the United States of America, China, Japan and Russia, requires the magnetic system for creating an "invisible box" to confine ultra-hot plasma particles which combine and fuse and release energy.

ITER announced late Wednesday that the United States had completed and tested the central solenoid, and now assembly is underway.

Pietro Barabaschi is the director general of ITER. He said, "It's like the bottle inside a bottle wine. The wine may be more important, but the bottle is needed to place the wine in."

Originally scheduled to be completed in 2021, the magnet has been delayed.

Charles Seife is a professor of nuclear fusion at New York University. He said, "Being four years behind schedule after 10 years shows how troubled the project is."

Barabaschi stated that the "crisis", as he called it, was over and the construction is proceeding at the fastest rate in ITER's entire history. In 2033, the start-up phase will begin. This is when the project is expected to generate plasma.

He said ITER showed that countries can still work together despite geopolitical tensions.

"They are very united in their objectives, and I don't see any signs of anyone withdrawing for the moment."

Fusion investments are on the rise, and dozens of projects are currently in progress. Private start-ups claim they can build commercial reactors in a decade.

Barabaschi was skeptical but supported the dozens ventures that are in development around the world.

He said, "We know we can achieve fusion." "The question now is: Can we get fusion at a cost-effective price?

"I'm not sure that we can achieve this in, say, a decade or two." It will take longer. (Reporting and editing by Kate Mayberry; Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner, Washington)

(source: Reuters)