During the two-week Culham Plasma Physics Summer School organized at Culham Science Center, UK, one of the most expected moments is the visit to Joint European Torus (JET). JET is the world’s largest operational magnetically confined plasma physics experiment. It is based on a tokamak design and is the direct predecessor to ITER, which should be operative in 2025.
JET runs only during some seconds at the time and thereafter it must rest about 20min before a new run. In a good operative day, about 20 runs are carried out. These runs are made for experimentation and no electricity is produced. However, a lot of energy is required (about a 1% of the total energy used at a given moment in the UK). This is why a direct phone line from London to the JET control room can ring at any moment, kindly requesting to stop experiments.