JT-60SA

JT-60SA

News: The world’s largest nuclear fusion reactor, the JT-60SA in Japan’s Ibaraki Prefecture, has commenced operations, marking a significant step toward achieving clean energy.

About:
• JT-60SA (short for Japan Torus-60 Super Advanced) is a large research tokamak, the flagship of Japan’s magnetic fusion program.
• As of 2023, it is the largest operational superconducting tokamak in the world. It was built and is operated jointly by Europe and Japan.
• The machine is designed to provide critical information for ITER operation, allowing ITER to go on to produce much more power than is injected. It also aims to explore steady-state operation envisioned for tokamak-based power plants and high beta plasma regimes.

What is ITER?
• ITER (which means “The Way” in Latin) is one of the most ambitious energy projects in the world today. It is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject aimed at creating energy through a fusion process similar to that of the Sun.
• The primary objective of ITER is the investigation and demonstration of burning plasmas—plasmas in which the energy of the helium nuclei produced by the fusion reactions is enough to maintain the temperature of the plasma, thereby reducing or eliminating the need for external heating.
• The ITER Members— China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States —are now engaged in a decades-long collaboration to build and operate the ITER experimental device, and together bring fusion to the point where a demonstration fusion reactor can be designed.