Nuclear Fusion Is Coming, but Will It Power Peace or War?

Jan 12, 2018 | John Draper and Peerasit Kamnuansilpa
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Last month, the European Union-hosted International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) announced it was halfway to completing initial operation, meaning it will begin testing of fusion power generation around 2035. Meanwhile, a dozen private companies are looking to create their own fusion reactors within the next 10 years. The implications of private companies overtaking the government-backed ITER project require the attention of the UN, not just in fighting global warming via its Environment Programme but also in its oversight of global economics via the World Bank and the UNDP, and the effects of scientific developments on geopolitics, via Unesco. ITER is the world’s largest publicly funded fusion project, at US$22 billion on completion of phase one in 2035. It symbolises international cooperation in advancing nuclear fusion, the same process that drives our sun. The EU bears approximately 45 per cent per cent of costs, and China, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States contribute 55 per cent, with Australia also contributing in kind. Sometime after 2035, ITER is expected to produce 500MW of fusion energy for 50MW of input energy by combining deuterium and tritium, isotopes of hydrogen.