Is Nuclear Fusion a $22 Billion Scam?

ITER will not produce 10 times the energy it consumes

Nabil Alouani
10 min readOct 27, 2021
A picture of a young man with glasses expressing doubt
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels

Endless energy. Zero waste. That’s what I found when researching nuclear fusion for the first time. I particularly fell in love with a project called the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER.

“ITER will generate 10 times the energy it consumes,” the story went — and boy was I thrilled to write about it. Little did I know, I was falling for a sexy lie based on cherry-picking and discrete agendas. Before we dive into the details, however, you may want to refresh your knowledge about thermonuclear fusion and how it works. This article will bring you up to speed.

Otherwise, let’s begin.

Nuclear confusion 101

Every technology we use to generate electricity involves an efficiency ratio called “Q.” You calculate it by dividing how much energy you get out of a power plant by how much energy you put in it.

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Nabil Alouani

I drink coffee and write prompts || 100% human-generated content || Weekly mails: https://nabilalouani.substack.com