Capturing even an aircraft carrier, 280,000 times stronger than the Earth’s magnetic field, this magnet is about to be used to create fusion energy for humanity.

One of the most important parts of the ITER fusion power plant project is a block of super-strong magnets that can compress the charge carriers so tightly that the temperature of the gas reaches millions of degrees, starting for a chain reaction like the one on the Sun.

Now the first module of this giant magnet has been completed in California, USA and is preparing for a long journey to France, where it will be installed in the power plant of the ITER project. When completed, this magnet block will have a height of nearly 18m, a width of more than 4m, equivalent to a 6-storey building.

To move this huge block of magnets, a special 24-axle vehicle is used to transport it. But its bulky size makes traveling only done at night so as not to affect other vehicles. Its current destination is the Texas coast, where it will be loaded onto a ship for delivery to Marseilles, France at the end of August.

Weighing more than 113 tons, this module is the first of seven modules that will be carefully stacked to form a powerful electromagnet in the middle of a giant roundabout – or tokamak. This structure is at the heart of the fusion experiment in the ITER megaproject to realize humanity’s huge clean energy dream.

When this whole block of Central Solenoid magnets is completed, it can generate a magnetic force of up to 13 Tesla, 280,000 times stronger than the Earth’s magnetic field, making it the strongest electromagnet ever created. Its magnetic force is so strong that it can lift an aircraft carrier to a height of nearly 2m. To create this huge magnetic force, when completed, the electromagnet block contains more than 42 km of superconducting cables made of armored Tin Niobium alloy.

The idea of ​​this project is to take advantage of the energy generated by the fusion of hydrogen atoms – similar to the reactions that occur in the Sun and other stars – to create a huge source of energy without emissions of hazardous substances, mitigating climate change. Moreover, it is also much safer during incidents such as core melt in conventional nuclear power plants.

But technical difficulties in fusion reactor development have kept the decades-long dream from coming true. ITER is the largest effort to date to overcome these obstacles with the cooperation of 35 partner countries. Overcoming technical obstacles, ITER will provide a practical platform for future fusion power plants, to be able to connect to the power grid of the future.

Despite the many difficulties that have emerged in the process, the ITER development team is still on track to realize its goal of creating the first plasma by 2025. It is a test to evaluate the ability to generate In this coil of magnets, hydrogen plasma is 10 times hotter than the Sun, setting the stage for future fusion experiments.

ITER’s next step will be testing power generation from fusion, slated to begin in 2035. At this point, ITER’s machine will fuse heavy hydrogen isotopes to produce energy. Although this reaction has been successfully carried out by many tokamak furnaces, it has not been sustained long enough and produces a new energy source greater than the input.

Refer to Vice