(ANSA) – TRIESTE, AUGUST 24 – “Nuclear fusion is certainly a solution that will come into play in the long term and that, if and when we succeed, will allow us to produce energy by taming the reaction that occurs inside stars on Earth.” The evocative image was sketched by French physicist Alain Becoulet while presenting the sophisticated Iter experiment for nuclear fusion, a global initiative. Becoulet spoke at an international symposium on energy and climate at the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics – ICTP in Trieste.
“The goal of Iter is to confine a stable plasma and be able to produce an energy ten times greater than that needed to activate and maintain it,” said the scientist, who called the project “an immense undertaking, which opens up a path never traveled before.” The plant for Iter is “under construction in France, it will be the result of the assembly of thousands of components, produced all over the world, which must be shipped to France and assembled on site.” Fusion will take a long time: “They’ve been working on it for 60 years and now fusion is finally leaving the physics laboratories.”
Stefano Monti, president of the European Nuclear Society, also spoke at the meeting, stating that “nuclear power can play an essential role in the energy challenge, if used in a complementary way to renewable sources”, as the “sophisticated new-generation ‘SMR’ (small modular reactors) allow us to do”.
Monti stressed, however, that “the trends in the use of fossil fuels have remained essentially unchanged over the last 30 years” and that “the urgency of eliminating emissions from fossil fuels should lead us to reconsider the decisions that have been taken by some countries to abandon nuclear power”. (ANSA).
2024-08-24 11:33:23