Global nuclear fusion project crosses milestone with world's most powerful magnet
By David Stanway
A much-delayed nuclear fusion project involving more than 30 countries is ready to assemble the world's most powerful magnet - a key part of efforts to generate clean energy by smashing atoms together at super-high temperatures.
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, based in southern France and backed by the United States, China, Japan, Russia and the European Union, needs the magnetic system to create an "invisible cage" to confine super-hot plasma particles that combine and fuse to release energy.
ITER said late on Wednesday that the final component of the system - the central solenoid - had been completed and tested by the United States, and assembly was now underway.
"It is like the bottle in a bottle of wine: of course the wine is maybe more important than the bottle, but you need the bottle in order to put the wine inside," said Pietro Barabaschi, ITER's director general.
The magnet was originally scheduled for completion in 2021, but has been beset by delays.
"To be behind schedule by four years after 10 years of effort shows just how troubled this project is," said Charles Seife, a professor at New York University who writes about nuclear fusion.
Barabaschi said the "crisis" was now over and construction was proceeding at the fastest pace in ITER's history. The start-up phase of the project will begin in 2033, when it is scheduled to start generating plasma.
He said ITER proved that countries could still cooperate despite geopolitical tensions.
"They have a very, very strong cohesion of objectives and for the time being I see no sign of a withdrawal from anyone."
Fusion investment has been growing, with dozens of initiatives currently underway. Several private start-ups have said they can build commercial fusion reactors within a decade.
Barabaschi said he was sceptical but supportive of the dozens of ventures in development across the world.
"We already know that we can get fusion," he said. "The question is, are we going to get fusion in such a way that it would be cost-effective?
"I am quite sceptical that we will be able to achieve this within, say, one or even two decades. Frankly speaking, it will take more time."
© Thomson Reuters 2025.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Today
an hour ago
- Japan Today
New Zealand's 'golden visa' scheme lures U.S., Chinese investors
A rainbow appears on the Auckland skyline in New Zealand. New Zealand said on Monday there has been a rush in applications for its new foreign investor migrant visa as the centre-right government looks to lure more high net-worth individuals to the country to stimulate economic growth. The government in April relaxed rules for the visa, including lowering the minimum required funds for the category that focuses on higher-risk investments to NZ$5 million ($3 million) from NZ$15 million, and removing the English language requirement. "(There has been) a flood of formal interest in the new 'golden' visa," Immigration Minister Erica Stanford said. "New applications under the scheme represent a potential NZ$845 million ($503 million) of new investment in New Zealand business." In a statement, Stanford said the government had received 189 applications in less than three months for the Active Investor Plus visa, compared with 116 submissions over more than two-and-a-half years under the previous settings. Eighty-five of those applications, or just under half of the total, were submitted by U.S. citizens, followed by China with 26 and Hong Kong with 24. New Zealand's economy grew faster-than-expected in the first quarter, official data showed last week, providing some relief for policymakers keen to put the economy back on a solid footing after it sank into technical recession last year. The two-quarter GDP decline was the worst since the sharp downturn of 1991, excluding the pandemic. © Thomson Reuters 2025.
Yomiuri Shimbun
2 days ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Europeans Press Iran on Nuclear Curbs, but Geneva Talks Yield No Breakthrough
GENEVA – European foreign ministers pressed their Iranian counterpart on Friday for curbs to Tehran's nuclear program, but the high-stakes meeting in Geneva yielded no quick off-ramp from the conflict in which President Donald Trump is threatening to bomb Iranian nuclear sites. Hours of talks at a luxury hotel ended without a breakthrough, officials said, even as all the ministers came out declaring their readiness to keep talking. The clock is ticking, though: Trump has set a two-week deadline to decide whether the United States will join Israel in the military campaign it launched last week vowing to cripple Iran's nuclear sites. Trump on Friday said that 'two weeks would be the maximum.' Washington is now in a standoff with Tehran over whether Iran should be allowed to enrich uranium at all, even for civilian purposes. After Friday's meeting, European ministers said they had pushed Tehran to restrict nuclear activities and negotiate with Washington, while Iran's foreign minister countered that Israeli strikes must stop before Tehran resumes any bargaining with the White House. A European diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy, said that there was no date set for a future meeting but that officials intend to reconvene within two weeks – before Trump's self-imposed deadline. Trump, however, characterized the European intervention as unhelpful and unlikely to achieve results. 'Nah, they didn't help,' he said Friday afternoon. 'Iran doesn't want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help on this one.' European leaders have been thrown off balance by Trump, who denied U.S. involvement in Israel's attack only to warn days later that he may join the Israeli campaign, which has spiraled into a deadly tit-for-tat with mounting civilian casualties and risks inflaming the region. The attacks continued Friday as the officials sat down for talks in Geneva. America's traditional European partners are deeply wary that U.S. involvement would lead to a wider, unpredictable war and that their nations could be drawn in. They have been working the phones hoping to carve out a diplomatic path before any U.S. strikes. Trump, who had promised to reach a deal with Iran over its nuclear program and lambasted the era of U.S. interventions in the Middle East, has since demanded Iran's 'UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER.' Despite the absence of a swift agreement, European officials hope Friday's meeting in Geneva – involving France, Britain, Germany and the European Union, which all had a central role in negotiating the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement along with Russia, China and the United States – leads to a more prominent mediation role for American allies that have been sidelined under Trump. European officials cast the latest diplomacy as an 11th-hour scramble to influence the crisis: to extract greater concessions from Iran, whose position they believe has now been weakened, and to get Trump to back away from his threats of a bombing campaign and suggestions of regime change. The Europeans acknowledged that it was a tall order on both fronts. It is far from clear that Trump will heed – or is even listening to – their calls for restraint. And Iran may not be willing to accept any ultimatum, officials concede. On Friday, the Europeans – French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul and the European Union's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas – gathered at the German Consulate in Geneva, where they conferred around a table on an outdoor terrace. They met with Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, later Friday afternoon. 'Regional escalation benefits no one, and that's why we need to keep the discussions with Tehran open,' Kallas told reporters after the meeting. Trump's wavering and his two-week deadline opened a small window for the diplomatic bid by the Europeans – who share Washington's insistence that Iran must not obtain a nuclear weapon. The meeting was coordinated with Washington, four officials familiar with the planning said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy. Still, Araghchi told reporters that Iran was 'ready to consider diplomacy once again, once the aggression is stopped and the aggressor is held accountable.' The European diplomat said Friday's talks broached the U.S. demand of zero enrichment of uranium by Iran, though there was little movement on this and other issues. While Tehran has said it is open to negotiating over its nuclear activities, it has rejected giving up all uranium enrichment, maintaining that it has the right to enrich nuclear fuel for civilian use. Previous talks contemplated allowing Iran to continue a limited amount of uranium enrichment for civilian energy purposes. Iran in the past pledged never to acquire nuclear weapons under the 2015 deal that Trump abandoned in 2018. Barrot, France's foreign minister, has said European conditions include a path to 'a substantial and durable rollback of Iran's nuclear program, of its ballistic missile program and its regional destabilization activities.' He suggested Friday without elaborating that the Iranians appeared ready to make concessions that previously were not on the table. But Araghchi said Iran's defense capabilities, an apparent reference to ballistic missiles, were 'nonnegotiable.' France, Germany, Britain and the E.U. were central to negotiations that resulted in the landmark 2015 deal to contain Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief under the Obama administration. After Trump abandoned the deal and reimposed U.S. sanctions, Iran gradually increased the quality and quantity of its enriched-uranium production. The Europeans would be instrumental in enforcing a new deal, including at the International Atomic Energy Agency, the global nuclear watchdog. Trump mostly shut out the Europeans when he came into office again this year and instead kick-started negotiations with Iran, which included promises of peace until the Israeli strikes began last week. French President Emmanuel Macron said at a Group of Seven meeting this week that Trump had indicated he would seek discussions to stop the hostilities. Soon after leaving the G-7, Trump denied that he was working on a 'ceasefire' and warned Iranians to 'immediately evacuate Tehran' – the nation's capital with around 10 million residents – putting the world on edge. Tehran has warned it would retaliate against a U.S. attack by hitting American bases in the region. European calls for de-escalation have done little to move Israeli officials, who have also framed the conflict as a chance to topple Iran's leadership. Israel launched its strikes last week despite Trump's stated ambitions for diplomacy, derailing U.S. negotiations and vowing to end Iran's ability to build a nuclear weapon. Israel is widely known to possess nuclear weapons but has never publicly acknowledged such an arsenal. Though the Europeans all urge de-escalation and agree on restricting Iran's nuclear program, they are not speaking with a single voice. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz this week praised the Israeli attacks and described them as 'the dirty work Israel is doing for all of us.' Macron, meanwhile, warned against 'regime change because nobody can say what would come after that' and asked whether anyone had learned from the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. The conflict has also raised questions about an E.U. review of trade ties with Israel over its devastating war in Gaza. European officials had recently toughened their criticism of Israel. But some E.U. countries, now keen to see Iran's capabilities targeted, appear less inclined to consider punitive action against Israel, which had been expected to be debated by the 27-nation bloc in the next few weeks. Israeli fighter jets continued the blitz on Iran overnight Thursday and throughout Friday, attacking sites linked to Iran's missile systems and dozens of targets in Tehran, including a weapons research center, the Israeli military said Friday. Israel's Army Radio reported that Israel assassinated an Iranian nuclear scientist, bringing the number of Iranian scientists Israel claims to have killed since it launched the conflict last week to at least 11. During an Iranian barrage Friday, some missiles broke through Israel's vaunted air defenses and hit near government buildings by Haifa's port, injuring about 31 people, a hospital said. Iranian strikes hit sites in central and southern Israel, including a building bearing the logo of a military cyberdefense training center in Beersheba. The intensifying strikes and threats have also triggered a diplomatic scramble in the Middle East, where Iran and Israel's neighbors are rattled by the prospect of an widening war. Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi visited Paris on Thursday and described European talks with Iran as important for 'protecting the region.' Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty spoke with Trump envoy Steve Witkoff for the second time in a week and separately with Araghchi, urging them to 'utilize the available diplomatic channels' to halt the hostilities, the Foreign Ministry said Friday. – – – Parker reported from Cairo. Natalie Allison and Nilo Tabrizy in Washington, Lior Soroka in Tel Aviv, Victoria Bisset in London and Suzan Haidamous in Beirut contributed to this report.
Yomiuri Shimbun
2 days ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Europeans' Meeting with Top Iranian Diplomat Yields Hope of More Talks but No Breakthrough
GENEVA (AP) — A meeting between Iran's foreign minister and top European diplomats on Friday yielded hopes of further talks but no immediate concrete breakthrough, a week after the crisis centered on the Iranian nuclear program erupted into war between Israel and Tehran. Foreign ministers from Britain, France and Germany, as well as the European Union's foreign policy chief, emerged from talks at a Geneva hotel about 3 1/2 hours after Iran's Abbas Araghchi arrived for the meeting. It was the first face-to-face meeting between Western and Iranian officials since the start of the conflict. In a joint written statement issued after the talks ended, the three European nations and the EU said that they 'discussed avenues towards a negotiated solution to Iran's nuclear program.' They reiterated their concerns about the 'expansion' of the nuclear program, adding that it has 'no credible civilian purpose.' 'The good result today is that we leave the room with the impression that the Iranian side is fundamentally ready to continue talking about all important issues,' German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said, adding both sides had held 'very serious talks.' British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: 'We are keen to continue ongoing discussions and negotiations with Iran, and we urge Iran to continue their talks with the United States.' He added that 'we were clear: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.' In a separate statement, Lammy stressed that the aim of Europe and the U.S. was that Iran should stop all uranium enrichment. He said that 'there can be discussions about the energy needs of Iran' but added that 'zero enrichment is the starting point.' Lammy told British media outlets that there is 'a window of within two weeks where we can see a diplomatic solution,' and urged Iran 'to take that off ramp.' 'We must absolutely prioritize a return to full negotiations that include the nuclear program to go toward zero enrichment,' said French President Emmanuel Macron earlier on Friday in an apparent alignment with the U.S. position. Enrichment has been the key point of contention in talks between the U.S. and Iran over its nuclear program. U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff at one point suggested Iran could enrich uranium at 3.67%, then later began saying Iran must stop all enrichment on its soil. That position on the American side has hardened over time. Tehran rejects giving up all uranium enrichment. 'Military operations can slow Iran's nuclear program but in no way can they eliminate it,' said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot. 'We know well — after having seen what happened in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Libya — how illusory and dangerous it is to want to impose regime change from outside.' Barrot also said that European nations 'invited the Iranian minister to envisage negotiations with all parties including the United States, and without waiting for the end of the strikes.' The French Foreign Minister explained that in discussions with Iran, Foreign Minister Araghchi agreed 'to put all the issues on the table including some that weren't there before' and 'showed his disposition to continuing the conversation — that we started today — and for the Europeans to help facilitate, including with the United States.' EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said 'we agreed that we will discuss nuclear but also broader issues that we have, and keep the discussions open.' Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also addressed reporters outside the meeting venue after the talks ended. He expressed support for continuing discussions with the three European countries and the EU. He also denounced Israel's attacks against nuclear facilities in Iran and expressed 'grave concern' over what he called 'non-condemnation' by European nations. U.S. considering how to proceed Lammy traveled to Geneva after meeting in Washington with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Donald Trump's Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff. Trump has been weighing whether to attack Iran by striking its well-defended Fordo uranium enrichment facility, which is buried under a mountain and widely considered to be out of reach of all but America's 'bunker-buster' bombs. He said Wednesday that he'll decide within two weeks whether the U.S. military will get directly involved in the war given the 'substantial chance' for renewed negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program. Israel says it launched its airstrike campaign to stop Iran from getting closer to being able to build a nuclear weapon. Iran and the United States had been negotiating over the possibility of a new diplomatic deal over Tehran's program, though Trump has said Israel's campaign came after a 60-day window he set for the talks. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said that 'we wanted to open a discussion with the Iranian foreign minister because we believe that there is no definitive solution by military means to the Iranian nuclear problem — military operations may delay it but they can't eliminate it.' 'We are not seeking negotiations' Iran's supreme leader rejectedU.S. calls for surrender Wednesday and warned that any military involvement by the Americans would cause 'irreparable damage to them.' Before Friday's talks, Araghchi said in an interview aired by Iranian state television that 'in the current situation, as the Zionist regime's attacks continue, we are not seeking negotiations with anyone.' He said that 'we have nothing to discuss with the United States, which is a partner in these crimes.' 'As for others, if they seek dialogue, not negotiations, which don't make sense right now, we have no problem with that,' he added. He said that Friday's discussion would focus 'solely on the nuclear issue and regional matters' and Iran won't hold talks on its missiles with anyone. Threats to reinstate sanctions Just before meeting the European diplomats, Araghchi made a brief appearance before the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. He said that Israel's 'attacks on nuclear facilities are grave war crimes,' and insisted that 'we are entitled … and determined to defend our territorial integrity, national sovereignty and security with all force.' Iran has long insisted its nuclear program is peaceful, though it was the only non-nuclear-armed state to enrich uranium up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. The three European countries played an important role in the negotiations over the original 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. But they have repeatedly threatened to reinstate sanctions that were lifted under the deal if Iran does not improve its cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
