ITER Organization Makes, and Corrects, Another False Power Claim
By Steven B. Krivit
July 16, 2024
On July 1, 2024, the ITER organization issued a press release with an inaccurate and exaggerated claim about its primary goal. On July 8, it removed the false claim.
The original press release (archive copy of original version), at this URL, had contained an inaccurate and exaggerated claim about the projected result of this international publicly funded fusion project: “The plant at ITER will produce about 500 megawatts of thermal power. If operated continuously and connected to the electric grid, that would translate to about 200 megawatts of electric power, enough for about 200,000 homes.”
The calculation for that claim omitted the 440 megawatts of electrical power that the reactor is expected to use. The accurately stated power balance is that, if the ITER reactor is operated continuously and connected to the electric grid, the 500 MW thermal output would translate to a loss of about 220 megawatts of electric power, consuming power that could have been used for about 220,000 homes.
Such misleading claims by the ITER Organization continue to confuse even pedigree science journalists like Daniel Clery, who wrote in Science magazine on July 3, 2024, that the stated goal of ITER is “generating 10 times more power than it consumes.”
After New Energy Times contacted the ITER Organization’s public communications team, it removed the entire power claim section from the original press release. (archive copy of revised version)
Pietro Barabaschi, the director-general of the ITER Organization, thanked New Energy Times for pointing out the inaccuracy and said that his team would encourage Science magazine to tell its readers that the stated goal of ITER is “generating in its plasma 10 times more power than is used to heat the plasma itself.”
The ITER Organization as well as Science magazine have had a long history of knowingly publishing inaccurate and exaggerated claims about the primary goal of the reactor.
