Japan and the European Union have officially launched testing at the world’s largest experimental nuclear fusion plant. Located about 85 miles north of Tokyo, the six-story, JT-60SA “tokamak” facility heats plasma to 200 million degrees Celsius (around 360 million Fahrenheit) within its circular, magnetically insulated reactor. JT-60SA first powered up during a test run back in October, and the partner governments’ December 1 statement marks the official start of operations at the world’s greatest fusion center, declaring a “enduring cooperation in the field of fusion energy.”
The tokamak– an acronym of the Russian-language classification of “toroidal chamber with magnetic coils”– has led researchers’ push towards achieving the “Holy Grail” of sustainable green energy production for years. Typically referred to as a big hollow donut, a tokamak is filled with gaseous hydrogen fuel that is then spun at tremendous high speeds using powerful magnetic coil encasements. When all goes as planned, extreme force ionizes atoms to form helium plasma, similar to how the sun produces its energy.
[Related: How a US lab created energy with fusion—again.]
Speaking at the inauguration event, EU energy commissioner Kadri Simson described the JT-60SA as “the most advanced tokamak in the world,” representing “a turning point for fusion history.”
“Fusion has the potential to become an essential component for energy mix in the second half of this century,” she continued.
Even if such an advanced turning point is crossed, it likely will not be at JT-60SA. Together with its still-in-construction sibling, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in Europe, the projects are intended solely to demonstrate scalable fusion’s feasibility. Current hopes estimate ITER’s operational start for sometime in 2025, although the endeavor has been fraught with financial, logistical, and construction challenges since its groundbreaking back in 2011.
Experts as well as Simson believe achieving sustainable nuclear fusion would mark a revolutionary moment that could ensure an emissionless, renewable energy future. Making the power source a practical reality, however, is fraught with technological and financial challenges. Researchers have chased this goal for a long time: The world’s first experimental tokamak was built back in 1958 by the USSR.
While researchers can now generate fusion energy at several facilities around the world, it is typically at a break-even point. By advancing the technology further at facilities like JT-60SA, however, industry experts believe that it is only a matter of time until fusion reactors regularly achieve net energy production gains.
[Related: Colorado is getting a state-of-the-art laser fusion facility.]
For now, another potential path to fusion energy is making its own promising gains. Earlier this year, the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Northern California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory achieved a net energy gain for the second time using the inertial confinement fusion method. In this process, a high-powered laser is split into 192 beams that then strike a capsule containing a pellet of tritium and deuterium.
