ITER: promise, progress and reality

Model answer

The format of good notes, with two headings filled in for Yle, 14 January 2020. Article: Yle Uutiset, 14 January 2020, VTT in Tampere. (1) Purpose: first machine where fusion power can really be tested. (2) Why difficult: plasma about $150$ million $^\circ\text{C}$, magnets at $-269\ ^\circ\text{C}$; radioactivity, so robots do the maintenance. (3)–(6): short notes in the same style, with numbers copied exactly and, for the future, who says it. Your teacher checks your notes against the article you read.

Assess your own answer

Tick the points your own answer already contains.

• The notes have the article's name and date.
• There are notes under all six headings, or the student notes that the article does not cover a point.
• Dates, numbers and costs are copied exactly as the article gives them.
• Statements about the future say who makes them.

Model answer

The Yle article of 2020 expected the Tampere parts to go to France in five to ten years; in 2026 this depends on ITER's new schedule, which moved research operation to 2034, so the estimate was reasonable then but uncertain now. The article named Europe, China, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the USA as partners; in 2026 the seven Members are the same, so this is still correct.

Assess your own answer

Tick the points your own answer already contains.

• Two pieces of information are compared.
• Each comparison gives the article's information and the information of November 2026 with a date.
• The answer judges whether the article was correct at its own time.

Model answer

The Yle article of 2005 reports a political decision: the site, the money for France and the reactions of Chirac and Greenpeace. The Yle article of 2020 focuses on Finland's part, the robots developed in Tampere, and quotes one researcher. They are different because they were written for different news: a decision in 2005 and a Finnish success story in 2020.

Assess your own answer

Tick the points your own answer already contains.

• The answer names the date and the angle of both articles.
• It says who is quoted in at least one of them.
• It gives a reason for the difference (date, news event, audience).

Model answer

Outline: (1) the article, its date and its angle; (2) ITER's purpose; (3) how fusion releases energy; (4) why it is difficult; (5) what makes ITER international; (6) how the project has changed: the article's information against the information of November 2026; (7) what the article says about the future, and your evaluation.

Model text (about 300 words, based on the Yle article of 2020):

In January 2020, Yle reported on VTT's laboratory in Tampere, where Finnish engineers develop robots and tools for maintaining ITER. The article presents ITER as the first machine in which fusion power can really be tested.

ITER's scientific purpose is to create a burning plasma: according to ITER, it should produce $500\ \text{MW}$ of fusion power from $50\ \text{MW}$ of heating, a gain of ten. It will not produce electricity, but it should show that a fusion power plant is possible.

In fusion, light hydrogen nuclei join into helium. The products have less mass than the fuel, and the missing mass becomes energy: one deuterium–tritium reaction releases $17.6\ \text{MeV}$. This is difficult because the positive nuclei repel each other, so the fuel must be heated to about $150$ million degrees and held by superconducting magnets cooled to $-269\ ^\circ\text{C}$. The neutrons also make the machine radioactive, which is why robots from Tampere are needed.

ITER is international because the machine is too large and expensive for one country. Seven Members, among them the EU, China, India and the USA, deliver parts; about twenty Finnish companies have taken part.

The article gives no date for ITER's first plasma. In 2020 the official plan was first plasma in 2025. As of November 2026, ITER's 2024 baseline plans research operation in 2034 and deuterium–tritium operation in 2039, after defects and the pandemic. The researcher's estimate that the Tampere parts would leave in five to ten years also depends on this schedule.

About the future, the article quotes the researcher's hope that fusion is the energy source of the future, and the EU's aim of fusion electricity in the 2050s. These are hopes and plans, not results. In my view the article explains the technology well, but a reader today must update its time scale.

Assess your own answer

Tick the points your own answer already contains.

• Point 1: ITER's purpose is stated correctly ($Q = 10$ or a burning plasma; no electricity).
• Point 2: at least two reasons why fusion is difficult (repulsion and temperature, confinement, materials, tritium).
• Point 3: energy release explained by the decrease in mass ($E = mc^2$), ideally with $17.6\ \text{MeV}$.
• Point 4: what makes ITER international (seven Members, shared cost and parts).
• Point 5: at least one dated comparison between the article and November 2026.
• Point 6: the article's view of the future, with who says it, marked as a plan, forecast or hope.
• Language: about 300 words (250–350), paragraphs, linking words, key terms used correctly; facts in the student's own words.

Model answer

Update, November 2026: At the time of writing, ITER's official plan (the 2016 baseline) foresaw first plasma in 2025. In July 2024 ITER replaced this plan; its new baseline plans the start of research operation in 2034 and deuterium–tritium operation in 2039.

Assess your own answer

Tick the points your own answer already contains.

• The note says the 2018 information was correct at the time.
• It gives the new plan with its year (2024 baseline: 2034 and 2039).
• It is dated and written in clear, neutral language.