La Vanguardia, a Spanish newspaper, has published an interview with Johannes Schwemmer, Fusion for Energy (F4E) Director. F4E is the agency in charge of managing the ITER project (Reactor International Experimental Thermonuclear) with headquarters in Barcelona, where it employs more than 400 people.
ITER is the international research project being developed in Cadarache (France). Once the work is completed, physical experiments will be performed to reproduce the energy of the stars in a fusion reactor. The experiment with the first plasma is expected to be completed in 2025. If the experiment succeeds, this will open the way to the demonstration phase to electrical production, which would become a commercial reality into the 2060’s. A source of energy that would avoid using fossil fuels and would curb emissions of greenhouse gases that are raising temperatures and causing climate havoc.
In the interview, Johannes reviews the benefits of fusion energy and recalls that the idea of ITER came from a pact of collaboration between Gorbachev and Reagan in order to avoid a new war for energy. This collaboration is totally necessary to build this kind of machines, called reactors, to obtain fusion energy due to its high cost. Finally, he confirms the idea that in Europe research in this field will remain public and intellectual property will be shared among partners.
Source: La Vanguardia (Spanish)