2023-11-05 17:33:55
The now activated JT-60SA tokamak will also help the giant fusion reactor under construction in France, ITER, to prove that fusion can produce more energy than it consumes. Japan has successfully commissioned its new fusion reactor, the JT-60SA, which uses superconducting magnets to isolate hot plasma in a doughnut-shaped chamber. The reactor, which is the largest and most modern fusion reactor in the world, is used to study the physics of fusion energy and to support the international project ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) in France. The first plasma was ignited on October 26, 2023, following more than 15 years of construction and testing. JT-60SA can heat plasma to 200 million degrees Celsius The reactor is designed to heat plasma to 200 million degrees Celsius and maintain that temperature for regarding 100 seconds, much longer than previous large tokamaks. This allows researchers to investigate how to control and optimize plasma stability. The JT-60SA will also help ITER, the giant international fusion reactor under construction in France, to demonstrate that fusion can produce more energy than it consumes. ITER will draw on experiences and technologies that will be first tested in JT-60SA. In exchange for France hosting ITER, the world’s largest fusion experiment, Japan was given the opportunity to build the JT-60SA and two other smaller fusion facilities. This was part of the agreement reached between Japan and the EU in 2007, under which Japan’s old JT-60 reactor, which had been in operation since the mid-1980s, was also modernized. Incidentally, JT-60SA stands for “superadvanced” and is regarding half as tall as ITER. It can hold 135 cubic meters of plasma, one sixth of what ITER can handle. A serious problem arose during testing According to Science.org, the reactor took more than 15 years to build, much longer than originally planned. According to the plans, the JT-60SA would have already started operating in 2016, but it had to face a number of challenges. It had to be redesigned, procurement problems had to be solved, and damage caused by the March 2011 Tóhoku earthquake had to be repaired. Then in March 2021, a serious problem arose during testing. One of the superconducting coil cables shorted out, damaging the electrical connections and causing a helium leak that might have affected the cooling systems. The voltage in the circuit was then minimal. “It might have been much worse if the tension was higher. We were lucky.” – said Hiroshi Shirai, who is the head of the QST project. The JT-60SA team had to repair the insulation of more than 100 electrical connections, which took two and a half years. The incident also made ITER engineers more cautious regarding testing the coils. In addition to size, JT-60SA has one disadvantage compared to ITER: it only uses hydrogen and its deuterium isotope, not tritium, the radioactive form of hydrogen, which is more powerful but also much more expensive. From 2035, ITER is expected to use a combination of the two isotopes, deuterium-tritium. It is worth mentioning that Japan plans to build DEMO by 2050, a fusion reactor that would bridge the gap between JT-60SA and ITER research and commercialization of fusion energy.
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