Scientists at a laboratory in England have shattered the record for the amount of energy produced during a controlled, sustained fusion reaction.
Around 2011, engineers at JET upgraded the divertor and inner vessel walls to tungsten. Tungsten was chosen in part because it has the highest melting point of any metal – an extremely important trait when the divertor is likely to experience heat loads nearlyThe inner vessel wall of the tokamak was upgraded from graphite to beryllium.
The JET tokamak is the largest and most advanced magnetic fusion reactor currently operating. But the next generation of reactors is already in the works, most notablyITER – which is Latin for"the way" – is under construction in France and funded and directed by an international organization that includes the US.
ITER is going to put to use many of the material advances JET showed to be viable. But there are also some key differences. First, ITER is massive. The fusion chamber isIn addition, ITER will utilize superconducting magnets capable of producingcompared to JET's magnets. With these upgrades, ITER is expected to smash JET's fusion records – both for energy output and how long the reaction will run.
ITER is also expected to do something central to the idea of a fusion powerplant: produce more energy than it takes to heat the fuel. Models predict that ITER will produce around 500 megawatts of power continuously for 400 seconds while only consuming 50 MW of energy to heat the fuel.
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