JET, the world’s largest and most advanced tokamak in Oxfordshire has finished its course of final experiments after 40 years.
Some 40-and-a-half years after its first pulse on 25 June, 1983, the groundbreaking fusion machine JET delivered pulse number 105,842 on Tuesday 18 December, 2023.
Since it began operating in 1983, JET has made major advances in the science and engineering of fusion. Its success has led to the construction of the first commercial-scale fusion machine, ITER, and has increased confidence in the tokamak as a design for future fusion power plants. Plasmas in JET are hotter than anywhere in the Solar System.
UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) Chief Executive Officer, Prof Sir Ian Chapman, who was in attendance in JET’s Control Room for the final plasma experiment, said:
“This is the final milestone in JET’s 40-year history. Those decades of research using JET by dedicated teams of scientists and engineers have played a critical role in accelerating the development of fusion energy.”
JET’s final day of plasma continued to push scientific boundaries, firstly attempting an inverted plasma shape for the first time at Culham before deliberately aiming electrons at the inner wall to improve understanding of beam control and damage mechanisms. The findings of these experiments will support the development of ITER.
JET will now move on to the next phase of its life cycle in early 2024 for repurposing and decommissioning, which will last until c.2040.
UKAEA has set up the STEP programme to deliver a prototype fusion powerplant in Nottinghamshire, aiming for 2040.
