Eight suppliers from six states have contributed to an astounding 60-foot-tall superconducting magnet crucial to a fusion experiment in France, according to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the agency overseeing the project.

U.S. ITER shipped the unit for the central solenoid early this year. It's made of more than 9,000 parts that were developed during a decade of work by numerous companies. It joined other high-tech components at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, commonly called ITER, in Europe. The machine reportedly cost more than $22 billion, per Euronews.

"Designing and manufacturing the first-of-a kind superconducting central solenoid is a major engineering challenge," Oak Ridge senior project engineer David Vandergriff said in a news release.

ITER is being built as part of a seven-nation partnership to prove that fusion reactions can be sustained at scale, harnessing the same energy source that powers the sun. The goal is to maintain a reaction for hundreds of seconds, per Oak Ridge.

Fission reactions already power 54 plants in the U.S. that produce about 19% of America's electricity, according to government data. But the atom-splitting process results in long-lasting nuclear waste. The byproduct is in the form of ceramic pellets, not green ooze, which is a common misconception. Rare, yet disastrous nuclear accidents are also a risk.

Fusion reactions, in comparison, slam atoms together to form a new one, producing energy without lingering radioactive waste. The hurdle has been creating a chamber that produces more power than it takes to make it, per the U.S. Department of Energy.

Both forms eliminate heat-trapping air pollution caused by the burning of dirty fossil fuels that increases the risk of severe weather, according to NASA. The extreme storms can cause blackouts, heat waves, and even higher insurance premiums.

But activists such as Jane Fonda have been outspoken against efforts to expand fission projects, including the reopening of Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. The site of an accident decades ago, it's now being tabbed by Microsoft to help power growing data center demand.

Colorado-based clean energy think tank RMI co-founder Amory Lovins told The Cool Down that nuclear power is increasingly expensive and slow to develop, touting solar and wind as better options.

Abundant, cleaner fusion energy could provide a game-changing answer to fission's problems with the potential to lower utility bills. And it will likely take a worldwide effort to unlock. Experiments are happening in China and elsewhere, as well. U.S. ITER's contribution is crucial to producing the magnetic flux needed to generate and maintain plasma current, according to Oak Ridge.

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The setup must be able to withstand massive force, which is partly why the reactions that involve swirling plasma in an environment heated to hundreds of millions of degrees are so tough to accommodate. The team developed strong support components to bolster the unit during the operational rigors.

"At key times, the resultant vertical force on the module stack is up to 60 meganewtons — more than twice the force of a space rocket at blast off," U.S. ITER engineering technical director Kevin Freudenberg said in the release.

There are also ways other than fusion to tap sun-related energy. Solar panels capture radiation directly from the sun, converting it to electricity with improved efficiency. You can reduce or eliminate your utility bill with the right setup. EnergySage is a free online tool that can help you leverage available tax breaks and find the best installer, resulting in thousands in savings with cleaner electricity.

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