Contract for Joint European Torus signed
A contract for Joint European Torus (JET) facilities between the European Commission and the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, UK, has been signed. It is a €283m contract, under Article 10 of the EURATOM Treaty that enables exploitation of JET – the world’s largest experimental magnetic fusion device – to continue until the end of 2018.
This new contract guarantees the continued availability of JET for the new EUROfusion consortium, which represents all EU and Swiss national fusion laboratories and institutes, until the end of the present EURATOM programme, which lasts from 2014-2018.
JET is currently the world’s largest experimental magnetic fusion device, and is the model used for the design of ITER, the global fusion experiment under construction in the south of France that will demonstrate the viability of fusion as a virtually inexhaustible greenhouse gas-free source of energy.
JET has been in operation since 1983, with the Culham Centre responsible for its operation since 2000. In an upgrade that was completed in 2011, JET was refitted with internal plasma-facing components made of the same materials that will be used in ITER. JET is the only device in the world capable of operating with the deuterium-tritium fuel mix that will be used for commercial fusion power.
JET facilities are collectively used by all European fusion laboratories. About 350 scientists from Europe, more from around the globe, participate in JET experiments each year, co-ordinated by a programme management unit.
