The Joint European Torus (JET) tokamak experiment taking place in the UK set a new record for power generated by hot plasma jets. The circular tokamak reactor is shaped like a doughnut, reaching 59 megajoules of energy. This is a new high for a reactor that requires enormous energy to reach operational speeds.
To note, a tokamak is a machine that produces a torus-shaped magnetic field to confine plasma. It is a form of plasma confinement apparatus, and is the most researched device for producing controlled thermonuclear fusion power. Because of how they work, mimicking the sun, tokamaks and fusion reactors are often referred to as artificial suns.
Meanwhile, JET is part of the Culham Center for Fusion Energy outside Oxford, England. The Center is the UK's national laboratory for nuclear fusion research, formerly known as UKAEA (U.K. Atomic Energy Authority) Culham.
For about ten years, the initial JET tokamak project operated with the same goal as the fusion reactor project currently being developed in a number of countries, namely to produce sufficient energy to be productive against the enormous energy costs of the fusion reactor to operate.
As quoted from Popular Mechanics, over the decades, this reactor has been continuously developed, which means it has been adapted and refined over time to continuously strive to achieve its goals. Then, in 2009, the reactor was completely closed for further repairs. Therefore, JET's achievements today make scientists almost unrecognizable when comparing them with those made by researchers in the 1980s.
A JET is a tokamak which is basically a donut-shaped or spherical tunnel in which isotopes of hydrogen are contained by a strong magnetic field and then heated to much hotter than the Sun. It is at this high temperature that atomic nuclei destroy each other. Furthermore, this reaction produces a very large amount of energy relative to the amount of fuel required.
Over time, JET has learned a lot from the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), another artificial solar project whose development is being carried out globally, together with scientists from various countries.
The results from the ITER experiments helped JET to better adapt its objectives, proving to be of great help when improving the JET between 2009 and 2011. Now, the two are working together to design experiments at JET that will help researchers at ITER make better decisions.
One of the ways JET is at the forefront of today's global tokamak is by using a fuel made of deuterium and tritium, names for two isotopes of hydrogen. Protium is the most common form of hydrogen, consisting of only one proton. Stable deuterium has protons as well as neutrons, while radioactive tritium has one proton and two neutrons.
This fuel source is much better than protium, but if the extra neutrons are sprayed it will cause problems. To address this, JET now has a special tungsten and beryllium shield that will also be part of ITER.
All this backdrop leads us to an exciting new record. In December, JET created an astonishing 59 megajoules of energy and maintained it for a full five seconds. This is the longest possible amount of time before the reactor overheats.