A much-delayed nuclear fusion project involving more than 30 countries is ready to assemble the world's most powerful magnet - a key part of efforts to generate clean energy by smashing atoms together at super-high temperatures.
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, based in southern France and backed by the United States, China, Japan, Russia and the European Union, needs the magnetic system to create an "invisible cage" to confine super-hot plasma particles that combine and fuse to release energy.
ITER said late on Wednesday that the final component of the system - the central solenoid - had been completed and tested by the United States, and assembly was now underway.
"It is like the bottle in a bottle of wine: of course the wine is maybe more important than the bottle, but you need the bottle in order to put the wine inside," said Pietro Barabaschi, ITER's director general.
The magnet was originally scheduled for completion in 2021, but has been beset by delays.
"To be behind schedule by four years after 10 years of effort shows just how troubled this project is," said Charles Seife, a professor at New York University who writes about nuclear fusion.
Barabaschi said the "crisis" was now over and construction was proceeding at the fastest pace in ITER's history. The start-up phase of the project will begin in 2033, when it is scheduled to start generating plasma.
He said ITER proved that countries could still cooperate despite geopolitical tensions.
"They have a very, very strong cohesion of objectives and for the time being I see no sign of a withdrawal from anyone."
Fusion investment has been growing, with dozens of initiatives currently underway. Several private start-ups have said they can build commercial fusion reactors within a decade.
Barabaschi said he was sceptical but supportive of the dozens of ventures in development across the world.
"We already know that we can get fusion," he said. "The question is, are we going to get fusion in such a way that it would be cost-effective?
"I am quite sceptical that we will be able to achieve this within, say, one or even two decades. Frankly speaking, it will take more time."
The Kremlin has confirmed that it will announce when the moratorium on strikes against each other’s energy infrastructure between Russia and Ukraine, brokered by the United States, will come to an end.
BP Chair Helge Lund intends to step down "likely during 2026" and the process to pick his successor has started, the energy group said on Friday amid a campaign by activist hedge fund Elliott for more change at the company.
Canada seeks alternative capital sources to reduce reliance on China and offers U.S. secure supply of critical minerals amid trade tensions
Some 47 million Europeans were not able to adequately heat their homes last year, says Dan Jorgensen
The European Union will seek more gas from countries including the U.S. to replace Russian supplies, and expand renewable energy faster to cut its overall reliance on the fuel, the EU's energy commissioner has said.
The United States and Ukraine have signed a sweeping economic partnership agreement focused on developing Ukraine’s mineral resources, as the Trump administration pushes for a long-term peace plan more than three years into Russia’s full-scale invasion.
U.S. President Donald Trump's national security adviser Mike Waltz and his deputy Alex Wong are stepping down, marking the first significant change in the President’s inner circle since he took office in January, U.S. media reported on Thursday.
South Korea has won a landmark $18.2 billion contract to build two nuclear reactors in the Czech Republic—its first overseas nuclear power project in 16 years—signaling a renewed push into Europe's growing energy market.
In Tunisia’s capital Tunis on Thursday, both opponents and supporters of President Kais Saied held separate demonstrations, reflecting an increasingly polarized political climate.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will meet diplomats from the European troika—France, Germany, and the United Kingdom—in Rome on Friday, ahead of a scheduled fourth round of indirect talks with US Special Envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.
In an expansive interview marking his first 100 days back in office, President Donald Trump sketched out an agenda that touches everything from punitive tariffs and China policy to cease-fire hopes in Ukraine and an overhaul of domestic programmes. Below are the highlights.
A deadly explosion at Iran’s Bandar Abbas port has left at least 40 dead, with more than 1,200 people injured, state media reported on Sunday, halting operations at one of the country’s most vital trade hubs.
North Korea has launched a new 5,000-tonne destroyer as part of Kim Jong Un’s plans to expand the country’s naval power far beyond its coastal waters.
A vehicle crashed into a crowd at a Filipino festival in Vancouver, killing 11 and injuring dozens.
A massive explosion at Shahid Rajaee Port in southern Iran on Saturday killed at least four people and injured nearly 600 others, officials said, prompting an urgent government investigation.
A satellite developed by British scientists and engineers is poised to become the world’s first to capture three-dimensional measurements of Earth’s forests from space.
Leaders from around the world, including the President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen, will come together today to address the global challenges and opportunities of speeding up the clean energy transition.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on world leaders to urgently step up climate efforts ahead of COP30, stressing that the planet faces deepening threats from worsening environmental disasters.
Oman, the Netherlands, and Germany have signed an agreement to establish the world’s first liquid green hydrogen import corridor, linking Oman’s Duqm port with Amsterdam and Duisburg. The project aims to supply Europe with renewable hydrogen, supporting clean energy goals.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) reports that March 2025 was the second-warmest globally and the warmest on record in Europe, signaling ongoing changes in global climate trends.
The United States and Ukraine have signed a sweeping economic partnership agreement focused on developing Ukraine’s mineral resources, as the Trump administration pushes for a long-term peace plan more than three years into Russia’s full-scale invasion.
U.S. President Donald Trump's national security adviser Mike Waltz and his deputy Alex Wong are stepping down, marking the first significant change in the President’s inner circle since he took office in January, U.S. media reported on Thursday.
South Korea has won a landmark $18.2 billion contract to build two nuclear reactors in the Czech Republic—its first overseas nuclear power project in 16 years—signaling a renewed push into Europe's growing energy market.
In Tunisia’s capital Tunis on Thursday, both opponents and supporters of President Kais Saied held separate demonstrations, reflecting an increasingly polarized political climate.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will meet diplomats from the European troika—France, Germany, and the United Kingdom—in Rome on Friday, ahead of a scheduled fourth round of indirect talks with US Special Envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.
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