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Taming the Sun

02/06/2014 GMT

BBC World Service - Discovery, Taming the SunSearch BBC

ITER, the world's effort to harness nuclear fusion, and the most complex experiment ever

ITER, the world's effort to harness nuclear fusion, and the most complex experiment yet, is years late. Roland Pease asks when the dream of limitless energy will come true.

ITER is the most complex experiment ever attempted on this planet. Its aim, to demonstrate that nuclear fusion, the power of the Sun, can give us pollution free energy that we can use for millions of years. But at the moment, it's still largely a vast building site in the Haut Provence of southern France, with little prospect of any nuclear reactions there for another decade. A recent management report made damning criticisms of the way ITER is run, of the relations between the central organisations, and the seven partners (USA, Russia, Japan, China, South Korea, India and Europe) contributing to the project. Roland Pease has been to Cadarache to see how work is progressing, and to hear of the hopes of the scientists who have dedicated their working lives to the dream. 

(Photo: The empty magnet-winding hall at ITER, BBC copyright)

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