The ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) project is a collaboration of 35 countries and some private companies, comprised of seven main members: China, the United States, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, and Russia. Following the signing of the Agreement for its development in 2006, the members have agreed to share the costs of the construction, operation, and dismantling of the project, as well as the joint benefits of the experimental scientific results and any intellectual property generated.
The ITER project aims to lay the foundations for a new energy source: Nuclear Fusion, this promises to be a safer and cleaner energy source than nuclear fission and probably unlimited, but the development of this technology, especially for its production on a large scale, it is not so simple and it involves many challenges to be solved.
The ITER project consists of creating an experimental machine called Tokamak designed in the shape of a donut to harness fusion energy. Hydrogen is injected into this chamber, which is accelerated by electric currents and magnetic fields so powerful that the nuclei of the hydrogen atoms separate from the electrons and transform into a plasma that heats up to 150 million degrees, which is necessary to achieve the fusion of nuclei, in this fusion helium atoms are generated and an enormous amount of energy that is used to heat water, the fusion power station uses this heat to produce steam and then electricity through turbines and generators.
Unlike nuclear fission, which consists of the breaking of a heavy nucleus into two lighter ones, fusion is not a chain reaction, so it is impossible to get out of control.
Nuclear fusion does not produce gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect, it does not need uranium as fuel, nor does it generate so much radioactive waste, since it involves two hydrogen atoms (deuterium and tritium) that, when their nuclei merge, form helium atoms, which is a harmless gas and generates a massive amount of energy
The reality of large-scale energy generation such as the ITER Nuclear Fusion could become an important global technological advance, limited at the moment for the countries with the most advanced economies, where experts also consider that it is time to allocate more government resources, regarding the classification, care, and maintenance of nuclear waste repository sites, of previously built nuclear fission plants that continue to function, being in many cases polluting the land, air, and water or generating permanent damage to the environment like those destroyed in the Fukushima Daiichi plants in Japan in 2011, or Chernobyl, Ukraine in 1986.
