Joint European Torus celebrates 100,000 pulses: Neither Brexit nor middle age has stopped '80s era experiment
- Reference: 1642775352
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/01/21/jet_100k/
- Source link:
JET, which is located at the [2]Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in the English county of Oxfordshire , has a history going back to 1975. The Culham site was chosen in 1977 and the doughnut-shaped tokamak achieved its first plasma in 1983 (the Queen did the official switching on duties the following year.)
In 1991 JET performed the world's first deuterium-tritium experiment and by 1997 it achieved 22.5 megajoules of fusion energy (and 16 megawatts of fusion power) in a dedicated deuterium-tritium run of experiments. In 2021 it completed a second full-power run using deuterium and tritium.
[3]
And now here we are, at 100,000 pulses. It is quite the achievement for the experiment as it approaches the 40th anniversary of activation.
[4]
[5]
JET was recently shut down in order to refit it with concepts from the [6]ITER design, including a new inner wall made of deuterium and tritium installed in 2011. The results of JET's experiment runs will therefore inform plans for ITER, which is due to start operation in the mid-2020s.
Hotter than the Sun: JET – Earth’s biggest fusion reactor, in Culham [7]READ MORE
However, the clock is ticking for JET. Milestone notwithstanding, it will be succeeded by the much larger [8]ITER Tokamak , currently under construction in southern France and due to generate its first plasma [9]at the end of 2025 .
The involvement of British boffins in the endeavor has been a little uncertain, despite the groundwork being done at JET for ITER. After all, the UK left the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) on 31 January 2020. However, [10]an agreement was reached to allow the UK to keep participating from 1 January 2021.
[11]Shocking: UK electricity tariffs are among world's most expensive
[12]Nuclear fusion firm Pulsar fires up a UK-built hybrid rocket engine
[13]US boffins: We're close to fusion ignition in the lab – as seen in stars and thermonuclear weapons
[14]Wireless powersats promise clean, permanent, abundant energy. Sound familiar?
Professor Ian Chapman, CEO of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, paid tribute to the experiment, and said: "JET has inspired and driven physicists and engineers across the world to build invaluable knowledge and develop ground-breaking new technology through a staggering 100,000 live pulses," before delivering what sounded a little like a eulogy: "It is truly one of a kind, the best there has been, and will be remembered long into the future."
Regardless of how much longer the machine, weighing in at 2,800 tonnes, will be operated, this week's milestone remains a tribute to both its design and the engineers and scientists that run it. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/watch-iconic-fusion-energy-machines-100000th-pulse
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2017/09/25/geeks_guide_jet/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YermtTa-EwSeHQPPGLv8dQAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YermtTa-EwSeHQPPGLv8dQAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YermtTa-EwSeHQPPGLv8dQAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.iter.org/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2017/09/25/geeks_guide_jet/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2020/03/18/fusion_reactors_ai/
[9] https://www.iter.org/construction/construction
[10] https://www.gov.uk/guidance/nuclear-research-from-1-january-2021
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/07/uk_tariffs/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/26/pulsar_engine/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/18/livermore_fusion_experiment/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/09/wireless_powersats/
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
More like making the walls of a furnace out of natural gas; deuterium and tritium are both gases. Definitely a vulture hiccup here.
In fact the innovation in the "ITER-like Wall" is to incorporate beryllium and tungsten in various places, to see how the new materials hold up against plasma interactions.
The date appears to be correct, but the wall details are incorrect, as correctly pointed out by steelpillow (my highlighting below).
Quote from an article on [1]sciencenode.org posted OCT 24 2012 :
"Last year, we carried out the first experiments with the new ITER-like wall. Doing this in just deuterium, rather than in deuterium-tritium mixtures , allows us to test most of the relevant physics in a more flexible manner," says Lorne Horton, head of the JET department at the European Fusion Development Agreement.
The new wall at JET is a combination of beryllium and tungsten armor, which has demonstrated the hoped-for greater-than-10-fold reduction in trapping deuterium, thus giving efficient fusion results. Further tests for ITER will continue at JET into 2015 and 2016."
So looks like they moved from 'deuterium and tritium' rather than to it.
[1] https://sciencenode.org/feature/race-net-energy-gain-fusion.php
New wall at JET is a combination of beryllium and tungsten armour
It may be the Joint European Tours but it's in Britain
Joint European Tours but it's in Britain
Tours is in France, you must mean TORUS.
"including a new inner wall made of deuterium and tritium installed in 2011. "
Firstly I presume 2011 is a typo'd 2021?
Secondly I'm no Physicist (though have a Physics BSc!) but isn't that like making the walls of a furnace out of coal?