Joint European Torus

Fig. 6. Joint European Torus (JET) (With permission of Joint European Communities)...

Despite great strides, the problems arising from plasma-material interactions (PMIs), together with the selection of plasma facing materials, still represent major challenges for the reliable and safe operation of a D-T next-step tokamak [1]. They also remain potential obstacles for the successful development of future fusion power reactors. These issues came into sharp focus during D-T operation of the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) and the Joint European Torus (JET) and, in particular, in the process of designing ITER. 

The JET (Joint European Torus) nucelar fusion reactor. Photo Researchers, Inc. Reproduced by permission. 

At the end of the seventies it was decided to build, under the name of the JET Joint Undertaking, a fusion device (a tokamak) of much larger size than any fusion experiment existing at the time, JET, the Joint European Torus, located at Abingdon in the UK, began operation in 1983 and has become the flagship of the whole EU fusion programme. 

JET. Abbreviation for Joint European Torus, an experimental nuclear fusion device in England. It is a project jointly undertaken by several European countries. 

Fusion research relies on the bombardment of lithium with neutrons to produce tritium. Pictured here is the interior of the Joint European Torus device at Culham, Oxfordshire, England It is part of the European Fusion Development Agreement initiative to research and investigate the viability of fusion power. (EEDA-JET/Photo Researchers, Inc.)... 

The Joint European Torus (JET), which represents the most advanced experiment on fusion at this time, has produced (9 November 1991) for the first time fusion energy equivalent to 2 MW for 2 s using a D-T (deuterium-tritium) plasma, with 10-15 per cent tritium. 

Alman, D. A. Ruzic, D. N. Brooks, J. N. (2000). A hydrocarbon reaction model for low temperature hydrogen plasmas and an application to the Joint European Torus. Phys. Plasmas, Vol. 7, pp. 1421-1432... 

JET (Joint European Torus) The largest tokamak in the world located in Culham, England and is the only operational fusion experiment that is capable of producing fusion energy. It involves a partnership of several European nations and has been investigating the potential for thermonuclear power by nuclear fusion. 

Research has continued at Culham ever since, and it is probably the last major nuclear centre left in the UK other than the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston. Currently it is home to JET, or the Joint European Torus, which is a large tokamak now being used as a precursor for an even larger international project, ITER, which will be built in France. Construction of the JET began in 1978 and was completed in 1982, with the first experiments beginning in 1983. It is now acting as a test bed for ITER. 

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