An initial development in the UK is (ref 107) has resulted in an output of 16 MW for 1 to 2 seconds from an input power of 24MW. There are other experimental tokomacs in Russia, USA, Japan.

The larger International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)(ref 149) is to be built in France with participation of the EU, Japan, China, Russia, US, South Korea. This aims to generate 500 MW from an input of 50MW (ref 121). The site however will consume 200MW. The first "burn" is expected around 2022.

JET and MAST provide testing and diagnostics of materials and devices destined for ITER and future fusion reactors.

The subsequent step is to build several experimental reactors around the world, which should each generate 1300 MW with a net output this time at 1000 MW each.

Fuel options plentiful.

100 kg of Deuterium (obtained from 2800 tons of sea water) and 150 kg of tritium (obtained from 10 tons of lithium ore) could in the future produce 1000 MW of electrical power for 1 year (ref 138). There is sufficient Lithium to provide all the worlds energy for 1000 years plus and of course unlimited water. Tritium can also be produced in a heavy water moderated reactor.

 

JET model fusion reactor
Model of the JET fusion reactor.
Orange - Laminated magnet iron structure. Grey vertical cylinder on left - injection of ions at very high speed, neutralised, to raise temperatature of plasma in Torus. Royal blue piping - RF energy to raise temperature. The copper coils around the iron structure are cooled internally by gas/liquid to remove electrical heat whereas for ITER the coils are superconducting and thus produce no heat.
JET Tokomac Culham showing Torus
JET fusion Tokamac, Culham. Showing Torus where plasma is heated to 100 million deg K
Tiles (square) bolted to centre core. These are now being replaced for a new design to be tested for ITER. RF heating panels shown on right and back left.
Jet Torus mock up
JET torus mock up for engineers to practice detailed work in protective clothing Culham UK
 
JET fission reactor control room
Control room for JET fusion Tokamac, Culham (showing half of the room and JET shut down).
JET plasma current was increased to 4.3 million amps in April 2009 (to H mode) whilst applying the full magnetic field of 3.45 Tesla. This took a power of 27 MW injected into the plasma (deuterium), 23 MW from increased neutral beam power, 4 MW from radio frequency (RF) power. Later in 2010 new materials for ITER will be tested.
MAST fusion device Culham UK
Mega Amp Spherical Tokamac (MAST) Culham UK used for diagnostics, development and testing materials etc in Plasma.
MAST was built after JET and at minimal cost.

 

 

 

 

 

 

JET Torus Culham at 100 million deg C
JET Torus Plasma at 100 million Deg K Culham UK
 
 
JET Culham magnets and torus
Model of JET Torus and magnets
See bottom for pictures

 

Culham Scientific Labs MAST device at 100 million deg K
MAST plasma at millions Deg K
 

 

JET magnets Culham
JET iron magnet core orange frpm outside. Culham UK
The space between tokomac and 2 metre thick biological shield in floor, cieling and walls has the oxygen content lowered to 15% where an accidental spark is unlikely to cause a fire.
The dark blue steel structure on the left is for people to put on protective suits before entering the structure. Access to the structure is possible after a few weeks once the interior atmosphere is cleaned up with tritium collected for future use and impuities removed.