Meet the vacuum cleaners for nuclear fusion reactors

Achieving stable nuclear fusion is the ultimate prize in the quest for clean energy: it is clean, stable and unlike nuclear fission, there is no chain reaction.

Nuclear fusion reactors like the giant ITER project, currently under construction in southern France, could potentially provide an almost unlimited supply of emissions-free, safe energy to power us down the road to net zero emissions.
As you may expect, a machine that operates using plasma as hot as the sun can’t be cleaned in a conventional way. To keep the ITER machine running smoothly heat, ash and unspent fuel must be continually removed using a divertor.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group is constructing the first six of a total 58 components for the outer vertical target in the ITER tokamak divertor – part of an international collaboration of more than 30 countries involved in bringing this step-change project to life.

Watch this animated graphic to discover the technology at work keeping nuclear fusion reactors clean enough to power the future.