Italian firm ASG Superconductors
on Friday presented the first magnet for Iter, the world's
largest experimental plant designed to show it is possible to
produce energy from nuclear fusion.
It is 14 metres high, nine metres long, weighs 300 tonnes -
as much as a Boeing 747 - and is the shape of a big capital D.
The super-high-tech magnet, the first of 18 destined for the
Iter project, was made by the Malacalza family's ASG
Superconductors in its La Spezia plant, which will go on to
produce another nine (plus one spare one) of the 18 which will
form the core of the Iter reactor being built at Cadarache in
southern France.
The other nine will be made in Japan.
"We are very proud," said ASG Superconductors President
Davide Malacalza, "we and all those who worked on building it:
the head of production had goose pimples when he moved this coil
for the first time.
"It took five years to realise the prototype".
The first experiments with nuclear fusion are scheduled for
2025, Iter Director-General Bernard Bigot said, stressing the
"great enthusiasm" among the 35 countries collaborating on the
project.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
