Japan’s JT-60SA tokamak nuclear fusion reactor has achieved first plasma which makes it the world’s largest operating nuclear fusion reactor. The JT-60SA uses magnetic fields from superconducting coils to contain a blazingly hot cloud of ionized gas, or plasma, within a doughnut-shaped vacuum vessel, in hope of coaxing hydrogen nuclei to fuse and release energy. The four-story-high machine is designed to hold a plasma heated to 200 million degrees Celsius for about 100 seconds, far longer than previous large tokamaks.
It will take another 2 years before JT-60SA produces the long-lasting plasmas needed for meaningful physics experiments, says Hiroshi Shirai, leader of the project for QST.
Japan got to host JT-60SA and two other small fusion research facilities as a consolation prize for agreeing to let ITER go to France. The deal, spelled out in a 2007 Japan-EU agreement, called for upgrading Japan’s venerable JT-60 reactor, a research workhorse since the mid-1980s. The JT-60 building was retained while the reactor was rebuilt from the base up at an undisclosed cost.
At 15.5 meters tall, JT-60SA (for “superadvanced”), is roughly half the height of ITER and can contain 135 cubic meters of plasma, one-sixth the volume of its European cousin and about equal to a typical railroad tank car.
The original plan was for the rebuilt japanese reactor to come online in 2016. A redesign, procurement issues, and the March 2011 Tohoku earthquake all caused delays. Then, during testing in March 2021, a short circuit occurred in the cable supplying electricity to one of the superconducting magnetic coils. Traced to insufficient insulation in a critical wiring joint, the short damaged electrical connections and caused a helium leak that would have degraded cooling systems.
ITER plans to begin using deuterium-tritium fuel in 2035. ITER was also supposed to have reached first plasma. A new roadmap is to be created with a target first plasma in 2025 for ITER.
By 2050, Japan also hopes to build DEMO, a proposed demonstration power plant that would provide a stepping stone from the research of JT-60SA and ITER to commercial fusion power.
There are over 40 funded commercial nuclear fusion companies. They are all trying to achieve commercial nuclear fusion in the 2028-2035 timeframes.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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fusion energy is already here. It is called solar.
Fusion used to be only 30 years away and now it is only 15 or so. We are making good progress.
My guess is it ain’t gonna happen by 2035. I’ll be happy to be proven wrong, but I’d bet on it.