Researchers from the EUROfusion consortium have announced that the Joint European Torus (JET) device has released a record 59 megajoules of sustained fusion energy.
This achievement more than doubles the previous fusion energy record of 21.7 megajoules set there in 1997, according to EUROfusion, and occurred at the JET tokamak at the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) site in Oxford.
Credit: EUROfusion consortium
The results were achieved in EUROfusion’s experimental campaign designed to test over two decades’ worth of advances in fusion in preparation for the start of the ITER project, a fusion research project based in France and supported by China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the USA.
The data from these crucial experiments are considered a major step forward for ITER.
Tony Donné, EUROfusion Programme Manager (CEO), said: “This achievement is the result of years-long preparation by the EUROfusion team of researchers across Europe. The record, and more importantly the things we’ve learned about fusion under these conditions and how it fully confirms our predictions, show that we are on the right path to a future world of fusion energy. If we can maintain fusion for five seconds, we can do it for five minutes and then five hours as we scale up our operations in future machines.
“This is a big moment for every one of us and the entire fusion community. Crucially, the operational experience we’ve gained under realistic conditions gives us great confidence for the next stage of experiments at ITER and Europe’s demonstration power plant EU DEMO, which is being designed to put electricity on the grid.”
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According to EUROfusion, these results clearly demonstrate fusion’s potential to deliver a sustainable energy source for a low carbon future.
Dr Bernard Bigot, Director General of ITER, said: “A sustained pulse of deuterium-tritium fusion at this power level – nearly industrial-scale – delivers a resounding confirmation to all of those involved in the global fusion quest. For the ITER Project, the JET results are a strong confidence builder that we are on the right track as we move forward toward demonstrating full fusion power.”
