The construction of the Tokamak reactor in France leaves high hopes

Tokamak is a mega nuclear reactor under construction in the south of France and precisely in Saint Paul Lez Durance based on the agreement signed in 2005 between the European Union, the United States, Switzerland, Russia, Japan, India and South Korea. the energy project of the century has already been defined as it has the objective of producing clean nuclear energy.

How does nuclear fusion work?

Unlike the production process until now used in atomic power plants for energy production, which is base on nuclear fission, that is energy creation through the separation of atoms, the new concept expressed by Tokamak will be based on the process of fusion of the same, creating at least 10 times the energy produced by nuclear fission.

The process of nuclear fusion gives undoubted advantages for the management of radioactive waste as if we take into consideration the waste from nuclear fission, we know that for about 3000 years they remain radioactive, while those deriving from nuclear fusion already in the 12th year will have halved their radioactive effects.

There is no doubt that the studies on the reuse of waste produced by future nuclear fusion plants must still be completed in order to find the way to inactivate the radioactivity within them and above all to reuse the waste material in the new production processes. Only then can we talk about renewable energy from nuclear fusion.

There is however a cautious optimism about the possibility of reaching, at the end of this scientific process, a positive response in terms of the circular slag economy.

When will Tokamak be operational?

The construction status of the plant has seen this year the end of the primary construction works necessary to accommodate the mega reactor which is under construction and has reached about 60% of its constructive path. If the Tokamak implementation process is not impeded, ignition within the plant should take place in 2025.

It will take a few more decades before the nuclear energy produced by nuclear fusion is adopted on a large scale in the world, considering that the investment made by the team of countries in France will reach 20 billion euros at the end of the work.

How did this agreement extend to different countries?

It has been a long time since we talk about building the first atomic fusion power plant and Ronald Regan and Mikhail Gorbaciof had already spoken about it in 1985 during a US-USSR summit in Geneva. Both countries were studying the process of nuclear fusion but it was necessary, both for the completion of scientific studies and for the enormous investment, for other countries to participate.

This led to the 2005 agreement that created an international team of interested countries, necessary to be able to carry out this ambitious energy program.

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