#108 Open Letter to Editors of Nature

Feb 162022
 

Feb. 16, 2022

Magdalena Skipper, Editor in Chief, Nature
Karl Ziemelis, Chief Physical Sciences Editor, Nature
Michael White, Senior Editor, Physical Sciences, San Francisco, Nature

Dear Editors,

In several news articles, Nature has published inaccurate information about the purpose and primary design objective of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).

Examples:
  • “If all goes well, [ITER] will be the first fusion experiment that generates more energy than it uses.” (Declan Butler, June 29, 2005)
  • “ITER is a giant, €5 billion (US$6 billion) machine designed to prove that fusion power can work. … If all goes well, the isotopes will fuse together — producing some 500 megawatts of power in the process.” (Geoff Brumfiel, Nov. 21, 2006)
  • “ITER should generate roughly 500 megawatts of thermal power — around 10 times the amount of power needed to run it.” (Geoff Brumfiel, April 29, 2009)”
  • “ITER, on the other hand, aims to maintain fusion by generating up to 10 times more power than it consumes.” (Emiliano Feresin, April 30, 2010)
  • “The energy released by the machine should be roughly ten times the power it consumes.” (Geoff Brumfiel, May 6, 2010)
  • “Researchers hope that ITER, based in the south of France, will prove the viability of nuclear fusion as a power source. … The process is expected to release ten times the power it consumes.” (Geoff Brumfiel, May 12, 2010)
  • “The doughnut-shaped ITER reactor would use superconducting magnets to heat and squeeze hydrogen until the device ignites a fusion reaction, releasing around ten times the power it consumes.” (Geoff Brumfiel, May 28, 2010)
  • “If all goes to plan, ITER will release ten times the power it consumes, sometime after 2026.” (Geoff Brumfiel, Nov. 12, 2010)
  • “ITER’s goal of producing 500 million watts for 500 seconds by the late 2020s.” (Soo Bin Park, Jan. 21, 2013)
  • “ITER may produce 500 MWt of power by 2026 and may serve as a green energy roadmap for the world.” (Ge Li, Sept. 6, 2013)
  • “[ITER] an experimental reactor designed to use nuclear fusion to generate ten times the power that is put in.” (Elizabeth Gibney, July 31, 2014)
  • “[ITER] is predicted to produce about 500 megawatts of electricity.” (Davide Castelvecchi and Jeff Tollefson, May 26, 2016)
  • “ITER would generate electricity only in bursts of a few minutes.” (Edwin Cartlidge, July 6, 2017) [Later corrected to “ITER would generate energy only in bursts of a few minutes.”]
  • “[ITER] has the ultimate goal of generating an output power that is ten times its input power, 500 MW versus 50 MW.” (Editors, Aug. 17, 2021)
ITER Power Facts

ITER is designed to inject 50 megawatts of heating power into the fuel to create a fusion plasma with 500 megawatts of thermal power. That is its primary scientific purpose and design objective, according to the ITER Design Specification published by the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2002.

If ITER accomplishes that objective, the overall reactor will use at least 300 megawatts of electricity continuously throughout the experiment. Since 2017, some fusion scientists have started saying that the ITER reactor will need 50 megawatts to start the reaction. That is not the same as the power needed to start the reactor, which is 500 megawatts of electricity.

On this Web page, I list 11 sources that describe the operating power requirement for ITER in the 300-megawatt range. I list three references that are in the 400-megawatt range.

These facts mean that the overall ITER reactor, if it works as designed, will not produce net power or net energy.

JET Power Facts

The ITER power discrepancy was a direct successor to the JET power discrepancy. Here’s an example of the false power claims about JET, published on March 12, 2018, in The Guardian: “[JET] remains the gold standard for fusion power – but it achieved just 16 MW of output for 25 MW of input.”

JET’s 1997 result still holds the record for power output. But the 16-megawatt output needed an input of 700 megawatts. Full technical details about both reactors are here.

For Your Readers 

The ITER organization claims that the ITER reactor will “prove that fusion power can be produced on a commercial scale and is sustainable.” It says that the project “aims to demonstrate that it is possible to produce commercial energy from fusion.”

With a projected net power loss for the overall reactor, the upper management of the organization knows that they cannot possibly deliver such promises.

Perhaps your readers would appreciate learning the facts now.

Steven B. Krivit
Publisher and Senior Editor, New Energy Times

 

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