The fusion machine WEST, in the south of France recently broke the record for the longest fusion experiment ever, where the fusion plasma was maintained for a little over 22 minutes, or 1337 seconds. It is a vast improvement on the previous record time achieved with EAST, in China, a few weeks previously. Reaching durations such as these is a crucial milestone for future fusion energy machines, which will need to maintain fusion plasmas for several minutes.
WEST, a doughnut-shaped fusion device called tokamak, is located in the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, CEA, site in Cadarache, France. During the record it worked at a temperature of 50 million degrees. The end goal with the experiments at WEST is to control the plasma, which is naturally unstable, while ensuring that all plasma-facing components can withstand the extreme temperature and radiation without malfunctioning or polluting it.
The experiments at WEST are part of the major European fusion research collaboration Eurofusion, and precede the nearby larger fusion machine ITER. It is currently under construction and will demonstrate that fusion reactions can produce significantly more energy than the energy supplied to initiate the reaction process.
Encouraging progress
“This is encouraging progress, as the experiments show that the conditions exist to take this technology to the next level. It is important to remember that the records at WEST and EAST have been achieved with lower input power and at lower temperatures than what will be required for ITER. But at the same time, this is exactly what these machines are for – a preparation for what is to come”, says Pär Strand, fusion researcher at Chalmers, whose research includes analyzing the various fusion experiments within the Eurofusion collaboration.
Over the coming months, the WEST team will double down on its efforts to achieve very long plasma durations – up to several hours combined – but also to heat the plasma to even higher temperatures with a view to approaching the conditions expected in future fusion plasmas.
Mastering this inherently unstable plasma over long durations is a true technological challenge and an essential prerequisite for controlling a self-sustained plasma driven by fusion reactions, as will be the case in ITER, and ultimately for producing fusion energy on an industrial scale.
More info:
Read more in the Eurofusion press release: World record fusion plasma in Europe.
WEST is an acronym for Tungsten (chemical symbol "W") Environment in Steady-state Tokamak.
In 2024 another fusion record was achieved when energy was produced in 5.2 seconds, resulting in a groundbreaking record of 69.26 megajoules, with a fuel quantity of only 0.21 milligrams. Read more about in a previous news item here at chalmers.se: New fusion energy record shows mastery of fusion processes
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