The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor plant in Saint-Paul-Lez-Durance, France, is 50 percent complete. The sprawling landscape of construction cranes and partially completed buildings, along with a massive metal-and-steel ring, was described as looking like a “ modern-day Stonehenge ” by The New York Times in March 2017. It’s been a decade since construction began on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor plant, known as ITER. The project, which involves 35 nations including the U.S., aims to demonstrate that nuclear fusion — the combining of hydrogen isotopes to form helium, the same process by which stars generate light and heat — could be a viable future source of power generation for an energy-hungry world. The project has been dogged by delays and seen its projected cost nearly quadruple over the years to 18 billion euros ($22 billion) , and even a 2016 U.S. Department of Energy report supporting the project expressed […]