An English Tokamak set a 24-year record

In Europe, when talking about nuclear fusion, we think of the test Tokamak IDR in development in the south of France. But this is not the only project that will work for fusion on the old continent; We should mention the joint European Taurus or JET, Located in Oxfordshire, UK. Its officials have released interesting test results that have seen the machine Broke the 24-year energy production record.

In fact, on December 21, 2021, JET was able to produce tokamak 59 megajoules of energy in just five seconds. This is twice as much as the previous record 21.7 megajoules Founded in 1997. Absolutely, this figure is not revolutionary; This energy is not enough to boil a few dozen pots.

A small step for JET, a giant leap for business integration

Making this experience conclusive is time consuming; Keeping their artificial star alive Such an intense state for more than five secondsCompleted by researchers Check the reliability of the protocol They have been working to improve for over 20 years. “It may seem short-lived, but on a fusion scale, it is an eternity”, Explains physicist Arthur Darrell BBC.

And these are works beyond the scope of this installation; They are very useful for everyone Merger work, Starts with the popular ITER project. In fact, JET has absolutely no chance of becoming a competitor. This is above all a Complementary research site At the Tokamak service in France.

The roles of this test are therefore substantial because the protocol tested is similar to the protocol that allows ITER to achieve its objectives. “The stocks were high. These tests had to work.Ian Chapman, president of JET, told the BBC: “Otherwise, we would have been very worried about the reliability of ITER“, He agrees with the clear relief. So there is good reason to be very excited about the future of this technology.”Jet did as expected, saying the same would happen to ITER”, Said physicist Josefile in an interview with Prol Nature.

Now the road is clear

Henceforth, it is the latter because this good old JET has reached the peak of its capabilities. This is a heavy task for ITER to cross the profit margin. Because at present, these test facilities use more energy than they produce. But the model verified by JET confirms that it is theoretically possible to modify this trend to produce larger quantities of energy.

Obviously, there are still many obstacles to overcome, and it still takes a long time to reach the business link; The ECA The first ITER plasmas were not expected before 2030, and the first fusion power plants had many more decades to thrive. But in recent months we have seen significant improvements in this area, which proves that research is progressing rapidly. Researchers can only be satisfied if they know the efficiency of nuclear fusion Disrupted the path of our civilization.