The Stuff You Should Know Doin’ Science Playlist: Can Nuclear Fusion Reactors Save The World?

**Josh Clark** (0:01)
Hey, everybody, I'm back. I first heard about ITER, which is the nuclear fusion reactor being built in Europe, from a New Yorker article called Star in a Bottle by Rafi Kachadurian. If you find this episode floats your boat, I highly recommend reading that article too. The whole idea of what they're trying to do, which is to contain plasma, that crazy intense fourth state of matter that the sun and lightning are made up of, into a chamber here on Earth where it has no business being, really, really caught my attention. If they can do it, extremely cheap, abundant, climate-friendly energy will be unlocked for all, and who knows what will follow after that. The ITER Group was shooting for 2025 to start, but recently changed their date to 2034
You can pass the time while you wait by enjoying this episode.

**Charles W. Chuck Bryant** (0:55)
Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from howstuffworks.com.

**Josh Clark** (1:05)
Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry, who's a barrel of laughs.
And this is Stuff You Should Know.

**Charles W. Chuck Bryant** (1:15)
She gave us the old quick start. Like, I don't want to hear anymore, I'm pressing record.

**Josh Clark** (1:19)
Yep, she knows that shuts me up. Or at least cuts off whatever conversation I'm chiding her with.

**Charles W. Chuck Bryant** (1:25)
It was great. I'm telling you, if we could release the 20 seconds before each show as its own show, that would be terrible. No one would care.

**Josh Clark** (1:33)
No. We'd think it was funny if everybody else would be like, you edited this out for a reason.

**Charles W. Chuck Bryant** (1:38)
Yep.

**Josh Clark** (1:39)
So, Chuck, how are you doing?

**Charles W. Chuck Bryant** (1:42)
Great.

**Josh Clark** (1:43)
Have you ever been to Azen Provence, France?

**Charles W. Chuck Bryant** (1:48)
No. Is that a place?

**Josh Clark** (1:49)
Yeah.

**Charles W. Chuck Bryant** (1:50)
No, I haven't.

**Josh Clark** (1:50)
It is a rustic little town in Provence, and it is, strangely, maybe even ironically, in the non-hipster use, but in the actual definition of the word. Also, site to one of the most futuristic engineering projects humanity has ever undertaken.

**Charles W. Chuck Bryant** (2:13)
Meet, work, meet. That's the sound it makes.

**Josh Clark** (2:16)
Oh, I thought you were mocking me for being thrilled by the thought of this thing.

**Charles W. Chuck Bryant** (2:20)
No, it is kind of funny that this thing is in a sleepy little town.

**Josh Clark** (2:23)
Yeah, a hamlet maybe even.

**Charles W. Chuck Bryant** (2:25)
CERN in Switzerland, that's not in the city, is it?

**Josh Clark** (2:28)
No.

**Charles W. Chuck Bryant** (2:28)
You can't build these things in cities, that's why they're in sleepy towns.

**Josh Clark** (2:31)
Exactly.

**Charles W. Chuck Bryant** (2:31)
Because no one knows they're being poisoned.

**Josh Clark** (2:32)
Yeah, and you can push the mayor around pretty easy.

**Charles W. Chuck Bryant** (2:35)
Exactly.

**Josh Clark** (2:36)
This thing is called ITER, I-T-E-R, which is an acronym for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor.

**Charles W. Chuck Bryant** (2:45)
That's right.

**Josh Clark** (2:45)
Which really gets the point across.

**Charles W. Chuck Bryant** (2:47)
Did you know the word acronym is an acronym? That's not true.

**Josh Clark** (2:52)
Okay.

**Charles W. Chuck Bryant** (2:53)
I just want to see how long you would try and sort it out in your head.

**Josh Clark** (2:55)
I would have kept going another 30 seconds maybe.

**Charles W. Chuck Bryant** (2:58)
That would have been a great joke. I could have just kept it going like, I'm not going to tell you.

**Josh Clark** (3:02)
I would have, maybe 15 seconds.

**Charles W. Chuck Bryant** (3:06)
Because you would have looked it up.

**Josh Clark** (3:07)
You would have gotten that much more. So, I wouldn't have looked it up. I would have figured it out myself.
Anyway, ITER is this colossal engineering project. Somebody compared it to the pyramids at Giza.

**Charles W. Chuck Bryant** (3:20)
Oh wow.

**Josh Clark** (3:21)
Yeah, that's exciting stuff.

**Charles W. Chuck Bryant** (3:24)
Sure.

**Josh Clark** (3:25)
The thing is, it's a nuclear fusion reactor, and it's the culmination of decades of attempts to create a nuclear fusion reactor.

**Charles W. Chuck Bryant** (3:37)
Yes.

**Josh Clark** (3:37)
Because we got fission down, and we'll talk about the difference in a minute. Yeah. But fusion has been very elusive, and nowhere is it more apparent than in the ITER project.

**Charles W. Chuck Bryant** (3:48)
Yeah.

**Josh Clark** (3:49)
Because this thing is going to cost approximately $50 billion when it's completed. $50 billion. They started in 1993 They're hoping to turn on the switch in 2020, but it's looking like 2023 or 2024