The Joint European Torus (JET) in Oxfordshire, England, will conduct its final nuclear fusion experiment on Saturday. This marks the end of a four-decade mission to pursue nuclear fusion and harness the promise of clean, limitless energy. Nuclear fusion is considered the holy grail of energy production, as it eliminates greenhouse gas emissions and releases a significant amount of energy. The process works by fusing light pairs of atoms, the opposite of nuclear fission, where heavy atoms are split apart. Fusion powers the Sun and other stars.
The UK and Europe initially paired up to develop fusion reactions for energy provision, resulting in the creation of JET. Scientists from across the continent were brought to Culham in Oxfordshire, where Professor Barry Green oversaw the project’s design and construction. JET is the world’s largest and most powerful tokamak reactor, using magnetic fields to confine plasma – a hot, ionised gas – within a vessel and allowing light elements to fuse and yield energy.
JET faced several difficulties and delays and suspended experiments for nearly a decade in the mid-2000s while the internal structure was replaced. Despite this, the site holds the world record for producing the most energy from a fusion experiment, at 59 megajoules (MJ) during a five-second pulse. However, the hope of producing enough energy to power homes remains far off; 59 MJ is only sufficient to boil about 60 kettles’ worth of water.
Ms Fernanda Rimini, JET senior exploitation manager, said that the decommissioning would analyse how the reactor materials have changed, which would help improve other fusion sites. The new Iter reactor site in southern France is one such site that will benefit from JET’s research. A consortium of the EU, Russia, the US and China, Iter is the world’s most extensive fusion project. However, the UK government confirmed a few weeks ago that the country would not play a role, instead choosing to drive its domestic fusion energy strategy. The UK government has committed to spending £650m on an alternative Chinese fusion programme between now and 2027, with a new prototype fusion energy plant in Nottinghamshire called STEP
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More