World

New fusion plasma duration world record

WEST Operations Room during the record (Photo: CEA)

On February 12, the French experimental reactor WEST (W-Tungsten Environment in Steady-State Tokamak), one of the EUROfusion consortium medium size Tokamak facilities, set a new world record by sustaining plasma stability for 1337 seconds—over 22 minutes. This milestone, announced by the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), marks a significant step because maintaining plasma stability for extended periods is one of the most significant obstacles in bringing fusion power to commercial viability.

This new record surpasses the previous benchmark set by China’s EAST (Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak), which managed to sustain plasma for 1066 seconds on January 20. WEST’s world record has exceeded the recent achievement of the Chinese reactor by 25%.

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32nd European Fusion Programme Workshop

The workshop started with a welcome by Director of the IFMIF-DONES España Consortium Angel Ibarra Sanchez. Image credit: IFMIF-DONES

From 28 to 30 January, our group leader Mervi Mantsinen attended the 32nd European Fusion Programme Workshop in Granada, Spain. More than a hundred experts in fusion physics and technology took part and shared their progress and visions within the European Fusion Programme.

This year’s theme was “Nuclear Engineering and Physics for Fusion Power Plants”, and key topics included “Materials Testing”, “Fuel Cycle and Shelter”, “Fusion Reactor Life Cycle and Safety” and “Towards Fusion Power Plants”. Participants also had the opportunity to visit the University of Granada-DONES Research Centre in Escúzar, Granada.

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Yet again, a new fusion energy record from JET!

Artistic image of humanity harnessing the power of the sun. Generated with AI.

The Joint European Torus (JET) already reached the world fusion energy record back in December 2021, but as if that were not enough, it has done it yet again, two years later, during December 2023 with 69 megajoules using a mere 0.2 milligrams of fuel, beating the previous record of 59 megajoules. This is roughly the energy needed for a hairdryer to work for 10 hours nonstop. The importance of this new feat stems from the evident new knowledge that the fusion community has acquired in recent times that has allowed for such a steady advancement in the field.  

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