

Ultimately, the team was able to cut the amount of trapped fuel by a large multiple, contributing to the success of the recent fusion shot. In the rebuild, which involved 16 000 components and 4 000 tonnes of metal, the carbon was replaced with beryllium and tungsten to reduce tritium retention. This resulted in the formation of hydrocarbons, locking up the tritium fuel in the wall. Previously, the wall was made of carbon, but this proved too reactive with the fuel mix of deuterium and tritium, two heavier isotopes – or variants – of hydrogen used in the fusion reaction. “It’s a huge milestone in nuclear fusion – the biggest for a long time. The results were the culmination of years of preparation, with Prof Donné explaining that one of the key developments since 1997 involved changing the inner wall of the JET vessel. “It’s confirmed all the modeling, so it has really increased confidence that ITER will work and do what it’s meant to do.” While the energy generated at JET lasted just a few seconds, the aim is to ramp this up to a sustained reaction that produces energy. “It’s a huge milestone – the biggest for a long time,” he said. The results at JET represent a major landmark, said Professor Tony Donné, program manager of the EUROfusion project, a major consortium of 4,800 experts, students, and facilities across Europe. One of the most complicated machines ever to be created, it was scheduled to start generating its first plasma in 2025 before entering into high-power operation around 2035 – although researchers on the project expect some delays because of the pandemic.

ITER, which is being built as a collaboration between 35 nations, including those in the EU, is aimed at further firming up the concept of fusion. A larger and more advanced version of JET known as ITER (meaning “The Way” in Latin) is under construction on a 180-hectare site in Saint-Paul-lès-Durance, southern France. The results provided a major boost ahead of the next phase of nuclear fusion’s development. View of JET experimental fusion reactor plasma. This was almost triple the previous 21.7 MJ record set at the same facility in 1997, with the results touted as “the clearest demonstration in a quarter of a century of the potential for fusion energy to deliver safe and sustainable low-carbon energy.” Follow the link to learn more about the successful nuclear fusion experiment at JET. In a sustained five-second burst, researchers in the EUROfusion consortium released a record-breaking 59 megajoules (MJ) of fusion energy. Such plasmas can reach temperatures of 150 million degrees Celsius, an unfathomable 10 times hotter than the Sun’s core. Inside, superheated gases called plasmas are generated in which the fusion reactions take place, containing charged particles that are held in place by powerful magnetic fields. This came at the Joint European Torus (JET) research facility in Oxfordshire, UK, in a giant, doughnut-shaped machine called a tokamak. Some hope so, following a major breakthrough during a nuclear-fusion experiment in late 2021. and used for power generation in light water reactors – corresponds to nearly 10,000 kg of mineral oil or 14,000 kg of coal and enables the generation of 45,000 kWh of electricity.The quest began decades ago, but could a long-running joke that nuclear fusion is always 30 years away soon start to look dated? – following a corresponding enrichment Process by which the share of a certain isotpe in an element. Thus, 1 kg natural uranium Uranium in the isotope composition occurring in nature, Natu. is required for a certain quantity of electricity. The illustration shows how much coal, oil or natural uranium Uranium in the isotope composition occurring in nature, Natu. Related to one kilogram, uranium-235 contains two to three million times the energy Ability to do work or diffuse heat. 12 kWh from 1 kg of mineral oil and around 24,000,000 kWh from 1 kg of uranium-235. 8 kWh of heat can be generated from 1 kg of coal, approx. With a complete combustion or fission See 'nuclear fission'., approx.
