UK's Jet Nuclear Fusion Reactor Sets New World Record for Energy Output
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
The UK's 40-year-old fusion reactor achieved a world record for energy output in its final runs before being shut down for good, scientists have announced.
The Joint European Torus (JET) in Oxfordshire began operating in 1983. When running, it was temporarily the hottest point in the solar system, reaching 150 millionC.
The reactor's previous record was a reaction lasting for 5 seconds in 2021, producing 59 megajoules of heat energy. But in its final tests in late 2023, it surpassed this by sustaining a reaction for 5.2 seconds while also reaching 69 megajoules of output, using just 0.2 milligrams of fuel.
[...] JET forged together atoms of deuterium and tritium - two stable isotopes of hydrogen - in plasma to create helium, while also releasing a vast amount of energy. This is the same reaction that powers our sun. It was a type of fusion reactor known as a tokamak, which contains plasma in a donut shape using rings of electromagnets.
Scientists ran the last experiments with deuterium-tritium fuel at JET in October last year and other experiments continued until December. But the machine has now been shut down for good and it is being decommissioned over the next 16 years.
It's great that it's gone out with a little flourish," says Matthews. It's got a noble history. It's served its time and they're going to squeeze a bit more information out of it during its decommissioning period as well. So it's not something to be sad about; it's something to be celebrated."
A larger and more modern replacement for JET, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France, is nearing completionand its first experiments are due to start in 2025.
[...] Another reactor using the same design, the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) device, recently managed to sustain areaction for 30 seconds at temperatures in excess of 100 millionC.
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.