PARIS, Feb. 9 (EIRNS) – Researchers from the EUROfusion consortium, comprised of 4,800 experts, students and staff from across Europe, co-funded by the European Commission, used the Oxford-based Joint European Torus (JET) device, one of the rare operational tokamaks at the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) to release, during a five-second plasma reaction, a record 59 megajoules of sustained fusion energy.
To achieve this new record, the European tokamak underwent a profound transformation, in which the French CEA’s Institute for Research on Fusion by Magnetic Confinement (CEA-IRFM) was actively involved. In 2011, the carbon in the tokamak’s inner walls was replaced by beryllium and tungsten, which absorb much less tritium than carbon. JET thus has a configuration closer to that of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) but a volume 10 times smaller. However, JET is limited to durations of a few seconds because its particle size is too small.
However, this achievement on JET more than doubles the previous fusion energy record of 21.7 megajoules set there in 1997. It comes as part of a dedicated experimental campaign designed by EUROfusion to test over two decades’ worth of advances in fusion and optimally prepare for the start of the ITER, the giant tokamak in southern France constructed with the support of the EU, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and Russia.