Fusion Energy Future: A Physicist’s Visit to the Joint European Torus Fusion Reactor

Fossil fuels are running out and killing the planet. Scientists in Oxfordshire are trying to tame the power of a sun for alternative energy.

Interior of JET. Picture taken from the CCFE reception area.

On a cold and wet November morning, I was lucky enough to visit the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE) in Oxfordshire. The reason for my visit was to take a tour of the Joint European Torus (JET) and the Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak (MAST) fusion reactors.

Exterior of JET.

Exterior of MAST with grey insulation layer visible and ports for equipment access. To the left is the Neutral Beam Injector which uses a beam of particles to heat the plasma.

At first glance, the JET fusion reactor looks like a huge mass of steelwork, piping and wiring like you would usually expect to see at a refinery. It is within the centre of this concentration of equipment that scientists are creating and trying to harness fusion, which is the process that literally powers the stars like the Sun. This would, in turn, enable a huge revolution in how we meet our energy needs for the future, if successful.