This Giant Magnet Can Lift an Aircraft Carrier—and Possibly Power the Future

The most powerful pulsed superconducting magnet system ever built is now complete, and will soon be part of the world’s grandest energy experiment. The system is the Central Solenoid of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), a towering magnet core built and tested in the United States and destined for southern France, where the international project is assembling its gigantic tokamak. The magnet system will serve as the electromagnetic “heart” of the reactor, strong enough—according to ITER—to lift a freaking aircraft carrier. For the uninitiated: Tokamaks are doughnut-shaped vessels that contain superheated plasma for nuclear fusion, the energetic reaction that powers stars like our Sun. Tokamaks constrain the plasma by generating very strong magnetic fields, hence the importance of ITER’s Central Solenoid. ITER is dedicated to validating nuclear fusion as a viable energy source, though none of the reactor’s output will be used to power anything. ITER is simpl ... Read full article.