primer domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/ikq167bdy5z8/public_html/propertyresourceholdingsgroup.com/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114The temperature of this plasma is in the millions of degrees and kept in situ long enough for hydrogen atoms to fuse to generate helium atoms, releasing enormous amounts of energy; high gravitational forces and significant heat fuse the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium together to create a point within the Sun.
In 1991, scientists working on a ground-breaking energy plant made history by generating the first controlled release of nuclear fusion electricity. Tokamak reactor JET (Joint European Torus) was later utilized to achieve a world record for energy production of 22 megajoules in 1997. Twenty-five years later, scientists have now shattered this world record in what they call a watershed event in the search for nuclear fusion energy.
JET is a tokamak fusion reactor, a doughnut-shaped container with precise magnetic coils that confines circular streams of plasma. The temperature of this plasma is in the millions of degrees and kept in situ long enough for hydrogen atoms to fuse to generate helium atoms, releasing enormous amounts of energy; high gravitational forces and significant heat fuse the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium together to create a point within the Sun. However, because tritium is very uncommon and difficult to handle on Earth, the most recent attempts to employ the fuel were those record-breaking efforts at JET in 1997. In plasma experiments, hydrogen or deuterium is commonly used instead of tritium.
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, is a seven-story being built in southern France that, when finished in 2025, would be the world’s most significant nuclear fusion device. ITER will employ a 50:50 mix of deuterium and tritium for heating the plasma and is expected to produce 500 MW of electricity from a 50 MW input, indicating a tenfold increase in energy production.
Engineers at JET replaced the inside carbon lining of the plasma vessel with a mix of beryllium and tungsten, the same materials that would coat the walls at ITER, in preparation for these trials later this decade. Scientists developed stable plasma using the deuterium-tritium fuel that produced 59 megajoules of energy in five seconds, more than double the previous record.
“These historic achievements have brought us one step closer to solving one of the world’s most difficult scientific and engineering problems,” said Ian Chapman, the UK Atomic Energy Authority CEO. “It’s a prize after more than 20 years of study and testing with our European colleagues.”
The reactor also temporarily produced 16 MW of peak output during the 1997 trials, a record for a tokamak device. That record still holds today, and the most recent JET tests, which instead focused on creating sustained fusion power, failed to break it.
“If we can keep fusion going for five seconds, we’ll be able to keep it is going for five minutes, then five hours as we scale up our operations in future machines,” said Tony Donné, EUROfusion Programme Manager.
