A radial array of heavy rebar now marks the circular footprint of a vast experimental nuclear machine that is the centerpiece of a research program into atomic fusion, potentially a limitless energy source. Fusion research at the site will be challenging enough, but just getting the $16-billion facility up and running is no easy task.
Weighing over three times more than the Eiffel Tower but far more complicated, the 23,000-tonne Tokamak reactor, located in southern France, is being designed in pieces all over the world; it will be assembled at the site near Saint Paul-lez-Durance, some 75 kilometers north of Marseille.