No endeavor in all of human history has brought together so many diverse cultures and viewpoints for a single cause as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).

Some would call it the Tower of Babel. I call it our Saviour.

Hi World,

Looks like I was spot on the mark, and this goes to show that even a humble hobby gardener can contribute to the greater good of humanity. No idea is too small, no idea lacking in 'qualification'. Any constructive and well thought out idea on any issue is worthy of attention. Below is the response I have received from the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER - iter.org). I must confess that I got a bit of a kick out of this, as even though my suggestion was long ago considered and implemented, the fact that a humble hobby gardener with no formal education past basic high school physics can contribute to such high level discussion is heartening.

And also timely.

Today I turned on the news and massive icebergs are floating south of New Zealand. The worst drought in possibly all of Australia's recorded 200 year history has descended upon the land. I cringe when I see a leaking tap. I recall snow on the hills surrounding Canberra in winter as a kid. Now they are barren. Destroyed by hot bushfires that sterilised the hills, and entire ecosystems disrupted. Global change is real, it is happening now, it is relevant to all that inhabit that Earth. It is no longer the domain of idealists, artists and socialists. And by God it is frightening.

However, ITER has the potential to save humanity and the Earth. No multi-cellular organism has so successfully colonised as far and wide as Homo Sapiens, rivaled only by bacteria. We have unlimited potential, to both harm and create life whether by design or accident.

ITER has the potential to provide base load power, for water desalination and the millions of toasters, kettles, hairdryers and wide screen televisions we unleash upon the world year after year.

I am a hard nosed capitalist and proud, I am not an armchair philosopher or yet another skinny-latte socialist.

I just agree with the Stern Report produced by the former chief economist of the World Bank, Nicholas Stern, that the cost of doing something now, is a pretty good deal compared to the costs of only symbolic electorate appeasing policies. ITER is a first class example of constructive action. For a few billion, we can have our consumer appliances and sedentary lifestyle that we cherish so much, and my magpie family will graze unharmed across my lawn after I mow it as they have been doing today (also the baby magpies are starting to play around and chase each other, it is incredibly cute).

The response below is also a validation of my belief that language shapes culture and thinking and therefore engineering solutions. Engineering solutions in the coming years will come to reflect other cultures and ways of seeing the world.

Without further ado, here is the response from ITER.

Dear Ian,

I apologise for the delay in answering...

Indeed, the "edge localized mode (ELM)" is a troublemaker for fusion scientists. What happens is that the hot plasma is kept together using a strong magnetic field. However, every now and then, a 'puncture' appears in the magnetic cage, and hot plasma pours out and potentially damages the walls of the plasma vessel. That we are now faced with this problem is actually a sign that the efforts of the scientists to contain the plasma have been very successful.

One of the current ways that people think about to lessen the problems is, as you say, to step a little bit away from creating "perfect" containment, but allow the plasma to seep through a little bit, in a controlled way, by introducing some chaos to the outer part of the magnetic field. The chaos can possible keep the ELM's from occuring. A qoute from a recent article on this problem:

"Until now, reactor designers have lived with these discharges, but Evans and his
team found a way around the problem. The group modified the DIII-D tokamak
reactor at General Atomics so as to introduce chaotic static into the magnetic field
around the plasma.This weakens the field just enough to let a little bit of plasma

leak out through the bottom, relieving some of the pressure in the system and

preventing it from bursting. "It's kind of a beautiful concept," Evans says."

I am sure you will be glad to know that all over the world people work together to solve the many challenges of fusion power, and the ITER project has Europe, Japan, China, India, Korea, Russia and the USA as its partners. Together, the ITER scientists represent a very broad scope of viewpoints.

thank you very much for your question,

best regards,

mark westra