UK researchers break nuclear fusion record
Joint European Torus project achieves new high in sustained energy from the process
The Joint European Torus (Jet) project has broken the record for highest sustained energy from nuclear fusion, achieving 59MJ over five seconds. The previous record of 21.7MJ over four seconds was set by the same project in 1997. Jet is owned by the UK Atomic Energy Authority and its scientific operations are run by European research collaboration Eurofusion. The project uses magnetic fields to confine plasma—a superheated gas of hydrogen isotopes—in a tokamak reactor. Under enough heat and pressure, hydrogen isotopes fuse into helium and release energy. Jet uses tritium, a rare hydrogen isotope that produces more energy when fusing with the more common deuterium isotope than deuterium-only
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