World’s largest fusion reactor opens in Japan

December 1st A new facility for fusion experiments was launched In Japan. It was built in partnership with the European Union. The JT-60SA nuclear reactor is of a type known as a tokamak, where hot electrically charged gas (plasma) is contained in a large bath ring-shaped container by strong magnetic fields. The Japanese plant is expected to produce results that can be used at Iter, the large international research reactor being built in France, and eventually create environmentally friendly fusion power plants.

The JT-60SA is the largest facility currently in operation, the world’s largest fusion reactor to date, JET in the UK, which is being completed at the same time. Completed his last round of tests should put The jet has been in use for 40 years and has achieved many milestones. It was the first reactor to conduct fusion experiments with a mixture of deuterium and tritium, the fuel mixture used in Ytter.

Nuclear fusion is a process in which smaller nuclei are fused into larger ones and energy is released. Unlike the fission used in normal nuclear power plants, minimal radioactive waste is produced. There are many hopes that the technology can be used in power plants in the future. Read more about ITER and fusion technology in the article The Art of Boxing the Sun.