September 27, 1997

FPN97-22 Fusion Program Notes

JET Sets New Records

Scientists at the Joint European Torus (JET) facility in the United Kingdom have begun a series of experiments using deuterium-tritium fuel mixtures and, almost immediately, they set three new world fusion records: the most fusion power, the most fusion energy and they highest ratio of fusion energy to input heating energy ever achieved. The experimental runs will last for several weeks. Jet director Martin Keilhacker said, "We hope to improve this somewhat over the next weeks."

The recent JET experiments, using a 50-50 deuterium-tritium fuel mixture, yielded more than 12 million watts of fusion power, 11 million joules of fusion energy and a ratio of fusion energy to input heating energy of 50 percent. The previous records, held by the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor in the U. S., were 10.7 Megawatts, 6.4 Megajoules and 28%, respectively.

The present series are the first deuterium-tritium experiments in JET since 1991, when a 10% mixture was used for a short time. The recent runs upped the fusion power in JET by a factor of 6, compared to the 1991 experiments. Since 1991, the JET facility has been upgraded to include a divertor to handle higher levels of exhaust power. Over the next few years JET will be devoted to verifying various aspects of the physics models being used to design the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).

Since the termination of the U. S Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor this year by order of Congress, JET and the JT-60U in Japan are the flagships of the world fusion effort. An integrated workforce of about 700 from many European countries, and many visiting scientists from around the world operate JET.

For further information, contact Tom Elsworth (telsw@jet.uk) or visit the JET web site (http://www.jet.uk).

For more information, contact: Stephen O. Dean