The megaproject that "aims to solve our energy worries forever”
It is not common to see a machine gracing the cover of the magazine National Geographic. Over its 137 years of existence, the monthly publication has featured spectacular landscapes and striking portraits, wildlife, monuments, and cosmic vistas. But a machine? With the exception of an occasional spacecraft or a Moon or Mars rover … almost never.
The cover of the magazine’s November 2025 issue is not exactly a machine but a machine-in-the-making. It features a photograph of the ITER tokamak assembly pit, with the central column at its centre, looking like a rocket on its launchpad, ready to ascend to the stars. (The picture was taken before sector modules #6 and #7—representing two-ninths of the plasma chamber—were installed.)
Under the headline “Inside the long-shot megaproject that aims to solve our energy worries forever,” the magazine devotes no fewer than 30 pages to the ITER project—how it was born, how it is being implemented and the challenges it faces. ITER scientists, present and past, are quoted (Alberto Loarte, current head of science: “We are playing with Mother Nature’s forces…”; Tim Luce, former head of science: “The time scale is not compatible with our immediacy culture…”) but also historical opponents, such as the three Nobel Prize winners who considered in 2010 that building ITER was a waste of time and money.
Despite the complexity of the subject, the author’s prose is highly readable: simple without being simplistic, supported by drawings when things get technically complicated. Some of the images the author paints are striking and to the point: calling plasma “a fiendish substance,” he compares containing it to “wrapping jelly in rubber bands.” Some of his reflections are at once lucid and provocative. “Fusion energy currently sits at the maddening intersection of conceptual simplicity and technological perplexity” … “The more you know about the machine, the less it may appear to make sense” … “The idea [of harnessing fusion energy] is undeniably a long shot, possibly a wild-goose chase, that might in fact exceed human capacity.”
From ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi, whose daily routine is shared in detail (“first meeting of the morning, usually at 6 o’clock” and “six minutes for lunch”), to the unnamed assembly worker marvelling at the D-shaped magnets while thinking that “in order to create this […] you have to be a little crazy”, the story that National Geographic narrates is one of long-term commitment and dedication. Despite the magnitude of the task, the setbacks, the “surprises around every corner” and the remaining obstacles, ITER, writes the author, “could shape the planet’s destiny.” So long, he adds … “as nothing goes wrong.”
Read the article here.