Cold, powerful magnet will help control hot plasma in fusion reactor

A magnet so powerful it could lift an aircraft carrier six feet into the air was designed in a project managed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It will be used in an international experimental reactor in southern France to produce energy using fusion, the same process used by the sun and other stars to create heat and light. If successful, the reactor could revolutionize energy production, potentially showing how to provide a nearly limitless energy supply without planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions or long-lived radioactive wastes.

Six modules for the reactor’s central superconducting magnet, plus a spare, are being made by General Atomics in Poway, California. Two of the modules have already been shipped to France. Two more are completed, with one of those expected to ship this year. The remaining three are more than 60% complete, and manufacturing should be done this year, said John Smith, General Atomics senior director of engineering and projects.