The prestigious Scientific American journal of June 2012 has revealed a project known as International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) which will attempt to reproduce sun’s power here on earth. Six countries and European Union have joined together to build ITER, the world’s largest experimental fusion reactor. A fund of 20 billion US$ has been set up for the construction cost with a donation of 45.5 percent by EU and 9.1 percent each by six countries of USA, Japan, Russia, China, India and South Korea. Supporters agree ITER is the only hope in the long run in meeting the unquenchable demand of power. During fission a tiny fraction of uranium’s mass turns directly into energy. Fusion is the same except working backwards with light nuclei such as hydrogen coming together. If the project worked, the payoff would be large: energy would be widely available and cheap; fossil fuel would become irrelevant. The energy produced would be three times the nuclear. The start date of project is 2020. One wished Pakistan also became a member of ITER in view of our serious energy problems.
DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTI
Lahore
