A visualization of ITER's completed reactor. Source: ITERA visualization of ITER's completed reactor. Source: ITER

China is preparing to deliver a batch of crucial parts to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in southern France.

The magnetic supports will support the ITER tokamak’s entire gravity load of 10,000 tons, and are designed to withstand its extreme electromagnetic loads. The Southwestern Institute of Physics, located in Chengdu City, Sichuan, spent the last eight years developing the supports, and exhibited the devices on June 9 in Zunyi, Guizhou Province.

“Magnets are necessary for the project,” said Luo Delong, director of ITER China Domestic Agency, in a June 10 interview with China Global Television Network. “We need strong support working in a severe environment with a very strong magnetic field and very low temperature. The design and manufacturing of such supports are very difficult.”

The ITER may prove that fusion energy is sustainable on a commercial scale. It uses a donut-shaped reactor called a tokamak to heat hydrogen plasma to 150 million degrees Celsius, ten times hotter than the Sun’s core. The tokamak is surrounded by giant superconducting magnets cooled to minus 269 degrees Celsius. The magnets confine and circulate the superheated plasma.

The project involves 35 countries, including the U.S., China, Russia, Japan and India. ITER requires 140 procurement packages — China is supplying 18 of these. Four vapor suppression tanks shipped by the country earlier this year arrived in France in April.

ITER’s first operational test is scheduled for 2025, with full operation slated for 2035.

For more about ITER and fusion energy:

“World’s Most Complex Machine” is Half Complete

MIT Announces a Working, Pilot Commercial Nuclear Fusion Reactor is 15 Years Away