Physics of nuclear energy production

[RTH10260]

The reactor was shut down December 31, 2023.

UK nuclear fusion reactor sets new world record for energy output
In its final experiments before being shut down for good last year, the UK's JET reactor set a world record for the energy output of a fusion reaction

By Matthew Sparkes
8 February 2024

The UK’s 40-year-old fusion reactor achieved a world record for energy output in its final runs before being shut down for good, scientists have announced.

The Joint European Torus (JET) in Oxfordshire began operating in 1983. When running, it was temporarily the hottest point in the solar system, reaching 150 million°C.

The reactor’s previous record was a reaction lasting for 5 seconds in 2021, producing 59 megajoules of heat energy. But in its final tests in late 2023, it surpassed this by sustaining a reaction for 5.2 seconds while also reaching 69 megajoules of output, using just 0.2 milligrams of fuel.

This equates to a power output of 12.5 megawatts – enough to power 12,000 homes, said Mikhail Maslov of the UK Atomic Energy Authority at a press conference on 8 February.

Today’s nuclear power plants rely on fission reactions, where atoms are smashed apart to release energy and smaller particles. Fusion works in reverse, squeezing smaller particles together into larger atoms.

Fusion can create more energy with none of the resulting radioactive waste created by fission, but we don’t yet have a practical way to harness this process in a power plant.

JET forged together atoms of deuterium and tritium – two stable isotopes of hydrogen – in plasma to create helium, while also releasing a vast amount of energy. This is the same reaction that powers our sun. It was a type of fusion reactor known as a tokamak, which contains plasma in a donut shape using rings of electromagnets.

Scientists ran the last experiments with deuterium-tritium fuel at JET in October last year and other experiments continued until December. But the machine has now been shut down for good and it is being decommissioned over the next 16 years.

Juan Matthews at the University of Manchester, UK, says JET will reveal many secrets as it is dismantled, such as how the lining of the reactor deteriorated through contact with plasma and where valuable tritium – worth around £30,000 a gram – has embedded in the machinery and can be recovered. This will be vital information for future research and commercial reactors.



https://www.newscientist.com/article/24 ... gy-output/

[RTH10260]

same, alternate source

Fusion research facility's final tritium experiments yield new energy record

by EUROfusion
FEBRUARY 8, 2024

The Joint European Torus (JET), one of the world's largest and most powerful fusion machines, has demonstrated the ability to reliably generate fusion energy, while simultaneously setting a world record in energy output.

These notable accomplishments represent a significant milestone in the field of fusion science and engineering.

In JET's final deuterium-tritium experiments (DTE3), high fusion power was consistently produced for five seconds, resulting in a ground-breaking record of 69 megajoules using a mere 0.2 milligrams of fuel.

JET is a tokamak, a design which uses powerful magnetic fields to confine a plasma in the shape of a doughnut. Most approaches to creating commercial fusion favor the use of two hydrogen variants—deuterium and tritium. When deuterium and tritium fuse together they produce helium and vast amounts of energy, a reaction that will form the basis of future fusion powerplants.



https://phys.org/news/2024-02-fusion-fa ... nergy.html