World's most powerful magnet begins journey to heart of giant fusion experiment

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World's most powerful magnet begins journey to heart of giant fusion experiment
By Harry Baker - Staff Writer 2 days ago

It will produce a magnetic field 280,000 times stronger than the one made by Earth.






The first module of the central solenoid on display at the General Atomics fabrication facility in San Diego.
The first module of the central solenoid on display at the General Atomics fabrication facility in San Diego. (Image credit: ITER)
Engineers in the U.S. are preparing to ship the first part of the world's most powerful magnet to France, where it will help power a state-of-the-art nuclear fusion reactor.

The magnet, known as the central solenoid, will make up the heart of the world's largest fusion reactor, ITER, which means "the way" in Latin. This international experiment involves 35 countries and aims to prove the feasibility of sustained nuclear fusion to create energy. In nuclear fusion, smaller atoms are fused to create larger ones — a reaction that releases enormous amounts of energy.

When fully assembled, the central solenoid will be 59 feet (18 meters) tall and 14 feet (4.3 m) wide, and will be capable of producing a magnetic field measuring 13 teslas — around 280,000 times stronger than Earth's magnetic field — making it strong enough to lift an entire aircraft carrier, which weighs around 100,000 tons (90,700 metric tons).

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IMO, we should be doing this here too!