40. ITER: The World's Largest Fusion Project
What is the primary goal of the ITER project?
- To generate electricity for the south of France.
- To demonstrate that nuclear fusion can be a practical energy source.
- To study the process of nuclear fission in a controlled environment.
- To build the world's first commercial fusion power plant.
According to the essay, what is a key advantage of fusion over the nuclear fission used in power plants today?
- It is a process that can only occur in the sun and stars.
- It produces a much greater amount of radioactive waste.
- It does not create dangerous long-lived radioactive waste.
- It uses a fuel that is much rarer than uranium.
The ITER reactor, called a tokamak, is designed to
- split heavy atoms apart to release energy.
- use seawater to cool the superheated plasma.
- contain super-hot plasma with powerful magnets.
- generate electricity directly from the fusion process.
The fuel for nuclear fusion is notable because it
- is a highly explosive gas that requires careful handling.
- can be produced from seawater, making it nearly unlimited.
- is currently very scarce and difficult to obtain.
- is the same uranium fuel used in fission reactors.
What will ITER accomplish when it begins operation in the 2030s?
- It will begin selling electricity to the European grid.
- It will prove that fusion can produce more energy than it consumes.
- It will use a process that is ten times cooler than the sun's core.
- It will be the first power plant to use a tokamak reactor.