Steven Cowley looks "Inside ITER"

 "There are moments in scientific history that are worth attending and I think 2027 will be one of them," declared Professor Steven Cowley, guest lecturer during last week's Inside ITER seminar.

 

CEO of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) since 2009 and director of the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, Cowley—a well-known proponent of fusion energy—was named last year to the UK Council for Science and Technology.

 

"2027 is going to be a historic year because it's the year that we start deuterium-tritium [operations] on ITER. The ITER machine is going to be an enormously capable machine and how we run it and what we get out of it .... We'll be making history." 

 

In this week's featured video "Preparing to Burn," Professor Cowley reviews the nearly 100 years of history that led to the ITER device—"the biggest step we'll ever make"—and addresses two key questions:  What is needed now to ensure the greatest possible scientific and technological output from ITER? And how can we hasten the first fusion electricity?