Final Components of ITER Central Solenoid Magnet Delivered to France After 15-Year Build

The final components of ITER's central solenoid magnet have arrived in France, clearing a major path toward first plasma at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. 25 meters wide, or 14 feet. It weighs 3,000 tonnes and forms the core of a magnetic system that also totals 3,000 tonnes and interacts with nine vacuum vessel sectors.

The central solenoid is a superconducting system composed of six individual modules. 5 tonnes, or 135 tons, and required a two-year process for fabrication and testing. Each is wound from 6 kilometers of niobium-tin superconducting cable.

The entire central solenoid magnet took 15 years to make. It was developed in the United States at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The final modules reached the ITER site in Cadarache this week. ITER is located in Cadarache, France.

Its tokamak measures a kilometer in length. The project is cooperatively funded and operated by China, the European Union, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States. ITER will never produce power to supply to the energy grid.

It exists purely as a research tool aimed at solving the scientific and technical challenges of nuclear fusion. The project's budget has reached €22 billion and it remains years from achieving first plasma. The scale of ITER and the unprecedented nature of its goals have led to increasingly long timelines.

The delivery of the solenoid marks a major milestone even as the megaproject faces competition from smaller, privately funded fusion ventures that are on track to hit similar technical benchmarks faster and more cheaply. A wave of well-funded private fusion startups has drawn increasing attention.

Interest from the tech sector has ramped up as Silicon Valley seeks solutions to surging electricity demand from artificial intelligence.

Bill Gates wrote in an October essay: "If you know how to build a fusion power plant, you can have unlimited energy anywhere and forever. " Gates added in the same essay: "The availability and affordability of electricity is a huge limiting factor for virtually every sector of the economy today.

" ITER's backers argue that growing private investment reflects the project's success in inspiring broader interest rather than signaling failure.

The experiment stands as a rare example of sustained international cooperation on a global scientific endeavor.