ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor)

New Capabilities

As of May 2026: Under construction in southern France, 90% complete

Fusion reactors might crack open the dark matter mystery without trying. University of Cincinnati physicist Jure Zupan and colleagues at Fermilab, MIT, and Technion just published a breakthrough. The study shows how neutrons slamming into reactor walls could spawn axions—hypothetical particles that may explain the 27% of the universe we can't see, and we're already building these reactors for clean energy.

Updated May 16