Arab News Japan

Japan and the world’s biggest experimental nuclear fusion reactor was inaugurated on Dec. 1, as scientists attempt to make nuclear fusion a viable source of the world’s energy.

The reactor, JT-60SA, is a tokamak, which is a donut shaped reactor that can preheat plasma up to 200 million degrees Celsius.

Researchers working on the project fired up the reactor for the first time in October, and it was said to start producing plasmas necessary for experiments in about two years.

EU energy commissioner Kadri Simson said that the JT-60SA is the “most advanced tokamak in the world.”

Speaking at the inauguration of the ceremony Simson added that the fusion “has the potential to become a key component for energy mix in the second half of this century.”

Japan’s new reactor, along with the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), which is under construction in Europe, will perform experiments that prove the technological feasibility of fusion at scale.

The fusion experiments that will take place in Japan will help determine the science that will be used at ITER, a reactor that can hold six times the volume of its Japanese partner.

The JT-60SA will, however, not use tritium —a rare isotope of hydrogen—in its reactions, while ITER plans to start using it in 2035.

Over 500 engineers and more than 70 companies across Japan and Europe came together to build the new reactor.