The Japanese tokamak JT-60SA set a record for the volume of retained plasma – 160 m³

The world’s largest thermonuclear reactor, JT-60SA, created as part of a joint project between Japan and Europe, managed to achieve a plasma volume of 160 m³. To date, this achievement is a world record, and it was officially recorded by representatives of the Guinness Book of Records.

Image source: interestingengineering.com

The experimental device JT-60SA is known as the world’s largest tokamak. It is located in Naka City in Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan. The installation was launched last year with the goal of quickly beginning the practical use of thermonuclear fusion energy.

During one of the experiments on JT-60SA, carried out in early September, scientists achieved a plasma volume of 160 m³, which significantly exceeds the previous record of 100 m³ of plasma. This was reported by the Japan National Institute of Quantum and Radiological Sciences. In the future, scientists plan to apply the knowledge gained during the creation of JT-60SA in other thermonuclear reactors, including the European ITER facility.

To contain the plasma inside the reactor chamber, a combination of a toroidal magnetic field created by coils of external superconducting magnets and a radial poloidal field generated by the passage of current in the plasma is used. The installation uses superconducting magnets cooled to -269 degrees. This allows you to keep plasma inside the chamber, the temperature of which can reach 100 million degrees.

The data obtained during the experiments can help achieve plasma control in large volumes, which will be useful in further work with even larger ITER and DEMO reactors. The DEMO facility will be based on JT-60SA and ITER and will be a device to demonstrate the power generation process and economic efficiency of fusion energy.