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An article published on 22 February 2021 in Nature highlights the importance of the upcoming campaign on the JET tokamak (UK) for °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ.

"Nuclear fusion experiments with deuterium and tritium at the Joint European Torus are a crucial dress rehearsal for the mega-experiment," writes author Elizabeth Gibney. "JET's experiments will help scientists to predict how the plasma in the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ tokamak will behave and to craft the mega-experiment's operating settings."

Chief °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ scientist Tim Luce agrees. "It's the closest we can get to achieving °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ conditions in present-day machines."

JET will be running experiments with hydrogen isotopes tritium and deuterium—the very fuel mix that °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ will use. Some experiments will use just tritium; others will combine deuterium and tritium in equal proportions. Both types of experiment are important, the author explains, because a key goal is to understand the effect of tritium's larger mass on plasma behaviour (tritium has two neutrons in its nucleus, whereas deuterium has one and hydrogen has none). That will help in predicting the impact of using different isotopes in °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ.

Read the full article .

"A [US] fusion plant is still years away, but it is definitely getting closer."

So concludes the Editor-in-Chief of Nuclear News, the American Nuclear Society's flagship publication, in the preface to the January 2021 issue. Nuclear News dedicates more than 50 pages to fusion energy, at a time when there is an increasing groundswell of interest in fusion in the United States and coalescence around the idea of constructing a . 

Highlights include a major contribution by °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ Director-General Bernard Bigot on the role of °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ; an article on public/private partnerships as the ideal way of advancing technology; features on fusion safety and the regulatory environment; input from startups looking to commercialize fusion energy; and an editorial by US °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ Project Office Director Kathy McCarthy, Associate Laboratory Director for Fusion and Fission Energy and Science at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

See a preview of the issue, or subscribe on the American Nuclear Society's .