UK Nuclear Fusion Experiment Breaks Record

In the quest for new energy sources, scientists in the UK have hailed what is being is described as a huge step forward for nuclear fusion energy.

Scientists and engineers running the Joint European Torus (JET) facility in Oxford announced they achieved a record-breaking 59 megajoules of heat energy from fusion, more than double the previous record achieved by JET. The experiment lasted 5 seconds.

And this is clean energy, as the fusion reactor at JET runs purely on seawater and involves no harmful waste.

Fusion power

Unlike a nuclear power station which splits atoms, the JET fusion reactor instead squeezes together two forms of hydrogen (deuterium and tritium, extracted from the seawater) until they fuse.

Fusion is the process that powers stars such as our sun, and it could be a clean source for the world’s energy needs in the future. Whether it arrives in time to combat climate changes remains to be seen.

Fusion is inherently safe as it cannot start a run-away process.

Incidentally, film buffs will remember that the “Mr Fusion generator” powers Marty McFly’s flying DeLorean time-machine in the ‘Back To The Future’ movie series. However that fusion reactor ran on rubbish, and not hydrogen from seawater.

During this experiment, JET averaged a fusion power (i.e., energy per second) of around 11 Megawatts (Megajoules per second).

The previous energy record from a fusion experiment, achieved by JET in 1997, was 22 megajoules of heat energy. The peak power of 16MW achieved briefly in 1997 has not been surpassed in recent experiments, as the focus has been on sustained fusion power.

“Record results announced today are the clearest demonstration worldwide of the potential for fusion energy to deliver safe and sustainable low-carbon energy,” the announcement states.

“Researchers from the EUROfusion consortium – 4,800 experts, students and staff from across Europe, co-funded by the European Commission – more than doubled previous records achieved in 1997 at the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) site in Oxford using the same fuel mixture to be used by commercial fusion energy powerplants.”

It said that 59 megajoules of sustained fusion energy was demonstrated by scientists and engineers working on the Joint European Torus (JET), the largest and most powerful operational tokamak machine in the world.

Landmark results

“These milestone results are testament to the UK’s role as a global leader in fusion energy research,” said George Freeman MP, Minister for Science, Research and Innovation. “They are evidence that the ground-breaking research and innovation being done here in the UK, and via collaboration with our partners across Europe, is making fusion power a reality.”

“Our Industrial Strategy for Fusion is intended to ensure the UK continues to lead the world on the commercial roll-out of this transformational technology, with the potential to deliver clean energy for generations to come,” said Freeman.

“These landmark results have taken us a huge step closer to conquering one of the biggest scientific and engineering challenges of them all,” noted Ian Chapman, UKAEA’s CEO. “It is reward for over 20 years of research and experiments with our partners from across Europe.”

“It’s clear we must make significant changes to address the effects of climate change, and fusion offers so much potential,” said Chapman. “We’re building the knowledge and developing the new technology required to deliver a low carbon, sustainable source of baseload energy that helps protect the planet for future generations. Our world needs fusion energy.”

The record and scientific data from these crucial experiments are a major boost for ITER, the larger and more advanced version of JET.

ITER is a fusion research mega-project supported by seven members – China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the USA – based in the south of France, to further demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy.

“A sustained pulse of deuterium-tritium fusion at this power level – nearly industrial scale – delivers a resounding confirmation to all of those involved in the global fusion quest,” noted Dr Bernard Bigot, director general of ITER.

“For the ITER Project, the JET results are a strong confidence builder that we are on the right track as we move forward toward demonstrating full fusion power,” said Dr Bigot.
Fusion energy’s potential