Return to ITER Power Facts Main PageBy Steven B. KrivitJune 1, 2022CNN published a news article on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) on May 30, 2022, which contained several errors and misleading omissions. There is no proven way to synthesize tritium from lithium-6 in a fusion reactor faster than it would be consumed. If we look at the 2021 JET experiment using values of energy, it produced 59 megajoules of fusion energy from an input of 3,500 megajoules of electrical energy. Thus, although a blanket will capture the thermal energy in the tokamak, ITER will not have a lithium blanket to breed tritium. ITER will not be able to test whether a fusion reactor can produce tritium fast enough.

Source: CNN June 01, 2022 16:16 UTC