1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,840 The sun has been shining for several billion years and will shine for several more. 2 00:00:05,840 --> 00:00:09,400 It provides Earth with solar power and makes life possible. 3 00:00:09,400 --> 00:00:13,480 In the upcoming decades, scientists are hoping to copy the energy source of the sun here 4 00:00:13,480 --> 00:00:16,760 on Earth in so-called fusion reactors. 5 00:00:16,760 --> 00:00:20,520 Cadarache in southeastern France, not far from Aix-en-Provence, sits here in the hills 6 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:24,880 north of Marseille where ITER is going to be built by the European Union and six partner 7 00:00:24,880 --> 00:00:28,880 countries after years of political and environmental controversy. 8 00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:33,720 This whole process is taking about 10 years from now. 9 00:00:33,720 --> 00:00:38,400 In about 10 years' time, we hope to have our first experiments on the machine. 10 00:00:38,400 --> 00:00:44,080 From 2009 onward, the huge reactor hall will be erected here, with 17 buildings around 11 00:00:44,080 --> 00:00:45,080 it. 12 00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:49,920 Inside the circular reactor chamber, a so-called tokamak will be assembled from oval elements 13 00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:52,520 surrounded by superconducting magnets. 14 00:00:52,520 --> 00:00:57,480 It's in this tire-like tube that a super-hot plasma of hydrogen particles is intended to 15 00:00:57,480 --> 00:01:03,240 be created for fusion at temperatures 10 times hotter than the sun. 16 00:01:03,240 --> 00:01:07,400 Next to the ITER site is the French nuclear test facility of Cadarache. 17 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:12,400 Here for decades, French scientists pursued the fission or division of heavy atoms. 18 00:01:12,400 --> 00:01:17,320 But in fusion, light hydrogen atoms have to be merged together. 19 00:01:17,320 --> 00:01:22,280 In the so-called tor-supra plasma experiment at Cadarache, the problems of dealing with 20 00:01:22,280 --> 00:01:32,640 fusion have also been studied to lay the groundwork for ITER. 21 00:01:32,640 --> 00:01:35,360 Today we are ready to construct ITER. 22 00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:40,480 That means that the technologies for it have been developed by tor-supra in order to create 23 00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:46,320 this prototype. 24 00:01:46,320 --> 00:01:50,480 From fusion test sites all over the world, research results are now being brought together 25 00:01:50,480 --> 00:01:51,680 to build ITER. 26 00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:56,760 In the research centre in Garching, next to Munich in Germany, Italian physicist Gianfranco 27 00:01:56,760 --> 00:02:02,320 Federici is working with fusion experts like Vladimir Barabas from Russia and Kimihiro 28 00:02:02,320 --> 00:02:05,440 Ioki from Japan towards building ITER. 29 00:02:05,440 --> 00:02:09,080 In the autumn, they move to Cadarache like hundreds of other scientists and engineers 30 00:02:09,080 --> 00:02:11,520 from all over the world. 31 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:16,480 At the Institute of Plasma Physics, Gianfranco Federici has spent years experimenting with 32 00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:19,240 different designs and materials for ITER. 33 00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:23,960 At the moment, he's testing combinations of beryllium, carbon or tungsten for their 34 00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:31,040 later use in the wall of the fusion chamber. 35 00:02:31,040 --> 00:02:34,760 Tungsten is a material which is very heavy in comparison with beryllium or graphite, 36 00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:38,960 but it has an advantage that it has a high melting point, so it can hold a lot of power 37 00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:43,720 deposited onto it, plus it's not eroded as easily as other material. 38 00:02:43,720 --> 00:02:48,920 So it's a very promising material from the point of view of reactor development. 39 00:02:48,920 --> 00:02:52,880 The problem with tungsten is just a tiny bit of tungsten might pollute the plasma and 40 00:02:52,880 --> 00:02:56,280 may degrade the performance of plasma. 41 00:02:56,280 --> 00:02:59,160 Gianfranco Federici has been facing such problems for years. 42 00:02:59,160 --> 00:03:03,220 The construction of a safe and reliable reactor is not only a matter of physics, but a huge 43 00:03:03,220 --> 00:03:06,720 challenge for clever engineers and designers as well. 44 00:03:06,720 --> 00:03:10,860 Together with German physicist Joachim Rott, he's trying to find the right combination 45 00:03:10,860 --> 00:03:13,600 of materials and design. 46 00:03:13,600 --> 00:03:18,080 The wall not only has to resist the extreme heat in the plasma chamber, but also must 47 00:03:18,080 --> 00:03:27,040 not absorb the heavy hydrogen, deuterium and tritium used as fuel for the fusion. 48 00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:31,000 This is a typical tile from a fusion experiment. 49 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:38,680 We're researching basically how much deuterium has condensed here in the experiment. 50 00:03:38,680 --> 00:03:43,920 This is very important in order to know how much of the radioactive tritium is being withheld 51 00:03:43,920 --> 00:03:48,720 in ITER. 52 00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:53,760 In such plasma experiments, scientists try to find out which materials and designs help 53 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:55,400 to reduce these problems. 54 00:03:55,400 --> 00:04:00,880 Also, new ways to sufficiently heat up the hydrogen fuel still need to be developed for 55 00:04:00,880 --> 00:04:04,080 the fusion process to start. 56 00:04:04,080 --> 00:04:08,720 So far, for example, heating methods like those used in the European fusion test site 57 00:04:08,720 --> 00:04:14,320 JET in Cullum in Britain are still not enough to create a fusion process for longer than 58 00:04:14,320 --> 00:04:16,080 a few seconds. 59 00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:19,680 Physicist Urself Vance and her team are searching for ways to heat the plasma with high-speed 60 00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:21,960 neutral hydrogen particles. 61 00:04:21,960 --> 00:04:28,600 We've reached the physical levels for this process, so we're confident that it works. 62 00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:33,280 But of course, we've still not yet reached the dimension that's necessary for ITER. 63 00:04:33,280 --> 00:04:37,480 At the moment, we can heat the plasma only for a few minutes, but at least one hour will 64 00:04:37,480 --> 00:04:42,960 be necessary. 65 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:47,440 In the sun, huge gravitational forces make fusion possible at temperatures of more than 66 00:04:47,440 --> 00:04:51,880 12 million degrees, releasing enormous amounts of energy into space. 67 00:04:51,880 --> 00:04:56,560 It's the same process that scientists on Earth want to use as an almost inexhaustible source 68 00:04:56,560 --> 00:05:02,720 of energy for mankind, in addition to sustainable ones. 69 00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:07,040 The fusion reactions working with deuterium and tritium atomic cores that merge together 70 00:05:07,040 --> 00:05:10,440 and thereby release energy in the form of high-speed neutrons. 71 00:05:10,440 --> 00:05:14,140 On Earth, the energy of these neutrons needs to be caught in the walls of the reactor in 72 00:05:14,140 --> 00:05:17,880 order to heat a traditional steam cycle for the production of electricity. 73 00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:18,880 Fusion works. 74 00:05:18,880 --> 00:05:19,880 The proof is there. 75 00:05:19,880 --> 00:05:20,880 OK? 76 00:05:20,880 --> 00:05:24,880 There is nobody that can argue fusion works on the sun. 77 00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:30,400 The reason why it works on the sun is that because gravitation, which is huge on the 78 00:05:30,400 --> 00:05:36,720 sun and likely is not big on Earth, otherwise we won't be here talking about it, keeps this 79 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:42,160 nuclei together, gives them enough time and energy to react together so the reaction can 80 00:05:42,160 --> 00:05:45,160 self-sustain. 81 00:05:45,160 --> 00:05:49,680 Unlike existing nuclear power plants based on the fission of highly radioactive uranium, 82 00:05:49,680 --> 00:05:54,080 the fusion reaction does not create highly hazardous nuclear waste materials. 83 00:05:54,080 --> 00:05:58,720 But the fast neutrons that are created in the fusion process could create radioactive 84 00:05:58,720 --> 00:06:03,520 isotopes of material in the reactor walls of ITER if they're not constructed properly. 85 00:06:03,920 --> 00:06:08,440 ITER is therefore only going to be an experimental reactor, working at 20 times higher energy 86 00:06:08,440 --> 00:06:11,800 levels than in existing plasma experiments. 87 00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:16,280 At a cost of 10 billion euros, ITER will never create commercially usable electricity. 88 00:06:16,280 --> 00:06:20,920 But it will be the last step before reaching the goal of creating power plants with fusion 89 00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:24,920 for all of mankind, hopes Russian scientist Vladimir Barabash. 90 00:06:24,920 --> 00:06:30,640 ITER will be built by seven parties. 91 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:35,480 The parties are responsible for some components of ITER, but these components must be put 92 00:06:35,480 --> 00:06:36,480 together. 93 00:06:36,480 --> 00:06:43,280 It means that in ITER we are now developing a lot of things related to accuracy, for example, 94 00:06:43,280 --> 00:06:47,520 for tolerances, for coding standards, for acceptance of different components made in 95 00:06:47,520 --> 00:06:49,760 different countries. 96 00:06:49,760 --> 00:06:53,320 After having spent several years in Munich, Barabash and his colleagues from Gaching will 97 00:06:53,320 --> 00:06:55,360 move to Kadyrash in a few months. 98 00:06:55,360 --> 00:06:59,200 So will other scientists from all over the world with their families. 99 00:06:59,200 --> 00:07:02,440 In the upcoming years, they'll not only be challenged by the construction of ITER, they'll 100 00:07:02,440 --> 00:07:06,960 also have to cooperate in an international team in an almost unprecedented scientific 101 00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:07,960 endeavour. 102 00:07:07,960 --> 00:07:18,380 You could imagine that with participation of such many countries, and also the way we 103 00:07:18,380 --> 00:07:23,080 organise the collaboration is quite unique. 104 00:07:23,080 --> 00:07:30,880 And also this type of collaboration could be a good precedent for any kind of international 105 00:07:30,880 --> 00:07:31,880 collaboration. 106 00:07:31,880 --> 00:07:36,800 In 2016, ITER partners and politicians hope to begin with fusion tests here on the hills 107 00:07:36,800 --> 00:07:42,620 of Kadyrash, but it's probably not until 2035 that a functioning fusion reactor will produce 108 00:07:42,620 --> 00:07:45,560 the energy of the sun for future generations on Earth.