32. A Decade of False and Exaggerated ITER Power Claims on Wikipedia
Feb. 10, 2019 – By Steven B. Krivit –
Wikipedia, although not the most authoritative encyclopedia reference, is almost always a reliable benchmark for public consensus and understanding. It therefore serves as an excellent indicator of how broadly the public was misled about the projected net power output of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). As a result of the impermanent nature of text on any Wikipedia page, in conjunction with the preservation and record of every edit that is made, the online encyclopedia can also serve as a time-correlated reflection of public consensus.
The false and misleading statements on Wikipedia were similar to those found in most news stories about ITER. They were similar to the false and misleading statements that were and still are on many documents and Web sites published by the European Commission, the European Parliament, the International Atomic Energy Association, and many other organizations.
The English, French, and Chinese Wikipedia ITER pages contained false claims that grossly exaggerated the projected net power output of ITER. The other Wikipedia ITER pages had less-significant errors. The most accurate Wikipedia ITER page was the German-language page. After I published “The ITER Power Amplification Myth,” in October 2017, I began making corrections, as shown below, to some of the Wikipedia ITER pages.
English Wikipedia
The English Wikipedia page for ITER discusses the expected thermal power output of ITER as early as 2004. However, at that time, the page did not suggest a value for the expected input power and, therefore, did not imply or contain a value for the net thermal output of the reactor. These values began to appear on the page only in 2009. At that time, the page did not contain the false claim.
In fact, the page from Jan. 7, 2009, discusses the expected net power relatively accurately and transparently based on the primary mission and design of ITER.
Jan. 7, 2009: “ITER is expected to produce (in the form of heat) 5-10 times more energy than the amount consumed to heat up the plasma … ”
The statement above was still misleading because it gave the impression of an output for the overall reactor, without comparing the input for the overall reactor. Like terms should be compared with each other. The thermal power injected into the plasma should be compared with the thermal power emitted by the plasma. Therefore, a more precise and accurate statement would be that “ITER is expected to produce a plasma with thermal power 5-10 times greater than the thermal power injected into the plasma.”
Two years later, a Wikipedia editor who was under the false impression that the overall reactor would require only 50 MW to operate, edited the sentence.
March 1, 2011: “The fusion reactor itself has been designed to produce 500 MW of power for 50 MW of input power, or 10 times the amount of energy put in.”
I have seen that exact language in only one other place before: the Web site for FuseNet, the European Fusion Education Network. I don’t know whether the Wikipedia editor copied from FuseNet or whether it was the other way around.
The Wikipedia editor can’t really be blamed. Even writers and editors for the International Atomic Energy Association (certainly unintentionally) had, as early as Dec. 3, 2002, failed to clearly and accurately represent the mission and design of ITER. For example, an IAEA news article misleadingly informs readers of ITER’s projected net output: “Under ideal conditions ITER will be able to produce ten times more power through the fusion process than is input into the plasma from outside (i.e., 500 megawatts produced from 50 megawatts input).” The fusion experts who had advised the IAEA had been either careless or dishonest. (Source) (Archive copy)
In 2012, Wikipedia editors made minor changes, as shown below in bold.
March 6, 2012: “The ITER fusion reactor itself has been designed to produce 500 megawatts of output power for 50 MW of input power, or ten times the amount of energy put in.”
Four years later, Wikipedia editors modified the sentence again, making the misrepresentation even stronger.
Dec. 19, 2016: “The ITER fusion reactor has been designed to produce 500 megawatts of output power for several seconds while needing 50 megawatts to operate.”
The next year, Wikipedia editors made a minor change.
April 7, 2017: “The ITER fusion reactor has been designed to produce 500 megawatts of output power for around 20 minutes while needing 50 megawatts to operate.”
Later that year, after I published “The ITER Power Amplification Myth,” I made a substantial edit and correction to the Wikipedia ITER page.
Nov. 26, 2017: “The ITER fusion reactor has been designed to produce a fusion plasma equivalent to 500 megawatts of thermal output power for around twenty minutes while 50 megawatts of thermal power are injected into the tokamak, resulting in a ten-fold gain of plasma heating power.”
French Wikipedia
The French ITER Wikipedia page included the false net-power claim for 12 years. It began in 2006, when somebody added these two sentences to the “Deux objectifs principaux” (“Two main objectives”) section of the page:
Sept. 18, 2006, FR: “Le premier [objectif] est de générer une puissance de 500 mégawatts en n’en consommant que 50 [mégawatts], durant 400 secondes (6 minutes 40 secondes). Le record mondial est de 16 mégawatts générés pour une puissance fournie de 25 MWatt, durant 1 seconde, réalisé par le Tokamak anglais [[JET]].”
Sept. 18, 2006, EN: “The first [objective] is to generate power of 500 megawatts by consuming only 50 [megawatts], for 400 seconds (6 minutes 40 seconds). The world record is 16 megawatts generated for a supplied power of 25 megawatts, for 1 second, made by the English Tokamak [[JET]].”
Twelve years later, I made corrections to the French ITER Wikipedia page.
July 19, 2018, FR: “La première [objectif] consiste à générer un plasma de fusion équivalent à 500 MW de puissance thermique en consommant seulement environ 300 MW de puissance électrique pendant 400 s (6 min 40 s), dépassant ainsi le «seuil de rentabilité». Le record mondial est, à ce jour, une puissance thermique de 16 MW générée pour une puissance électrique délivrée de 700 MW, pour 1 s, réalisée par le tokamak européen JET.”
July 19, 2018, EN: “The first [objective] is to generate a fusion plasma equivalent to 500 MW of thermal power by consuming only about 300 MW of electrical power for 400 s (6 min 40 s), thus exceeding the “break-even point.” The world record is, to date, a thermal power of 16 MW generated for an electric power delivered of 700 MW, for 1 s, realized by the European tokamak JET.”
Italian Wikipedia (Corrected Aug. 19, 2018)
Before Aug. 19, 2018, IT: “… un progetto internazionale che si propone di realizzare un reattore a fusione nucleare di tipo sperimentale, in grado di produrre più energia di quanta il processo ne consumi per l’innesco e il sostentamento della reazione di fusione. … L’energia in eccesso ottenuta dalla reazione nucleare non sarà immessa sulla rete elettrica, né utilizzata per scopi commerciali.”
Before Aug. 19, 2018, EN: “… an international project that aims to create an experimental nuclear fusion reactor, able to produce more energy than how much the process consumes it for the priming and the sustenance of the fusion reaction. … The excess energy obtained from the nuclear reaction will not be placed on the electricity grid, nor used for commercial purposes.”
As of Aug. 19, 2018, IT: “… un progetto internazionale che si propone di realizzare un reattore a fusione nucleare di tipo sperimentale, in grado di produrre un plasma di fusione con più potenza rispetto alla potenza richiesta per riscaldare il plasma. Il reattore stesso è progettato per essere equivalente a un reattore di potenza zero (netto). … Il reattore non è progettato per produrre potenza in eccesso e quindi non è stato progettato per convertire la potenza termica prodotta a elettricità o per essere utilizzato a fini commerciali.”
As of Aug. 19, 2018, EN: “… an international project that aims to realize an experimental fusion reactor , able to produce a plasma of fusion with more power than the power required to heat the plasma. The reactor itself is designed to be equivalent to a zero (net) power reactor. … The reactor is not designed to produce excess power and is therefore not designed to convert the thermal power produced to electricity or to be used for commercial purposes.”
Spanish Wikipedia (Corrected Aug. 19, 2018)
Before Aug. 19, 2018, ES: “ITER es un experimento científico a gran escala que intenta demostrar que es posible producir energía de forma comercial mediante fusión nuclear.”
Before Aug. 19, 2018, EN: “ITER is a large – scale scientific experiment that tries to show that it is possible to commercially produce energy by nuclear fusion.”
As of Aug. 19, 2018, ES: “ITER es un experimento científico a gran escala que intenta para producir un plasma de fusión que tenga diez veces más potencia térmica de que la potencia necesaria para calentar el plasma. Como sistema de reactor, el ITER será equivalente a un reactor de potencia cero (neto).”
As of Aug. 19, 2018, EN: “ITER is a scientific experiment on a large scale that attempts to produce a fusion plasma that has ten times more heat output than the power required to heat the plasma. As a reactor system, ITER will be equivalent to a reactor of zero power (net).”
German Wikipedia (As of Jan. 25, 2019)
The German page was correct. It stated the primary goal (translated from German) as a “10-fold increase in the heating power used, a fusion power of about 500 MW.” It had no erroneous claims for the projected net power. It stated a 300-400 MW input power requirement.
Japanese Wikipedia (As of Jan. 25, 2019)
The Japanese page is not correct. A machine translation of the key sentence provides this: “ITER is expected to produce an output (heat output) of 50 – 700 MW at the maximum, which is the first nuclear fusion device to generate practical scale energy.”
Russian Wikipedia (As of Jan. 25, 2019)
The Russian page is not correct. A machine translation of the key sentence provides this: “The task of ITER is to demonstrate the potential for commercial use of a fusion reactor … ”
Chinese Wikipedia (As of Jan. 25, 2019)
The Chinese page is not correct. A machine translation of one key sentence provides this: “The goal of the ITER project is a long-awaited shift from plasma physics experimentation to nuclear fusion power plants for large-scale power production.”
A second key sentence says this: “The design of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor is to produce 10 times the return (Q value = 10) and produce about 500MW of fusion power from 50MW input power.”
A third key sentence, which is copied and translated from the ITER Organization’s Web site, provides this: “Although the ITER program is expected to produce (in the form of heat) more than 10 times more energy than the energy used to heat the plasma to the fusion temperature, the heat it produces will not be used to generate any electricity. But as the first of all fusion experiments in history to produce net energy, this will prepare the way for such a machine.”
Polish Wikipedia (As of Jan. 25, 2019)
The Polish Wikipedia site does not make a power gain claim.
