Joint European Torus
JET, the Joint European Torus is the largest nuclear fusion experimental reactor yet built.
Situated on an old Navy airfield near Culham, Oxfordshire, in the UK, construction was started in 1978 and the first experiments began in 1983.
JET is equipped with remote handling facilities to cope with the radioactivity produced by Deuterium-Tritium fuel, which is the fuel proposed for the first generation of fusion power plants. Pending construction of ITER, JET remains the only large fusion reactor with facilities dedicated to handling the radioactivity released from D-T fusion, although the technical capability to use D-T fuel is exhibted in many reactors. The power production record breaking runs from JET, TFTR, and JT-60 overwhelmingly used 50-50 D-T fuel mixes.
In 1997 JET achieved a peak fusion power of 16 MW. The same experiment achieved a value of Q = 0.7 , where Q is the ratio of fusion power to input power. (A self-sustaining nuclear fusion reaction would need a value of Q that is greater than 1. Q of 1.25 has been achieved in the JT-60 experiment). Work has now begun on ITER to further develop fusion power.
Current status
In December 1999 JET came to an end of its international contract. The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) took over the safety and operation of the JET facilities on behalf of its European partners. The experimental programme is as of 2000 being co-ordinated by the European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA) Close Support Unit.
JET operated throughout 2003 culminating in experiments using small amounts of tritium. For most of 2004 it was shut down (Update September/October 2005, JET machine now being recommissioned ready for re-start during October 2005) for a series of major upgrades increasing total available heating power to over 40 MW, enabling further studies relevant to the development of ITER to be undertaken. In the future it is possible that JET-EP (Enhanced Performance) will further increase the record for fusion power.
| Fusion power |
| Atomic nucleus | Nuclear fusion | Nuclear power | Nuclear reactor | Plasma physics | Magnetohydrodynamics | Fusion energy gain factor | Lawson criterion| Timeline of nuclear fusion | Future energy development |
| Types of fusion |
| Fusion reactors |
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ITER (International) JET (European) | JT-60 (Japan) | Large Helical Device (Japan) | EAST (China) | T-15 (Russia) | DIII-D (USA) | TFTR (USA) | Alcator C-Mod (USA) | Shiva laser (USA) | PACER (USA) | NIF (USA) | Z machine (USA) | H-1NF (Australia) | MAST (UK) | START (UK) | DEMO (Commercial) |
