Scientific American - USA (2020-12)

DOUGHNUT DEVICE:
Engineers work on the
first section of the vacu-
um vessel—the torus-
shaped container that
will house the plasma
where, ideally, fusion will
ignite. Inside ITER, two
isotopes of hydrogen—
deuterium and tritium—
will collide at high speed,
offering a chance for two
atoms to stick and form
helium. The small bit of
mass lost in the reaction
converts into energy in
a deal brokered by Albert
Einstein’s famous equa-
tion, E = mc^2.