Important progress for JT-60SA

See the progress of the JT-60SA project – one of the three projects being developed under the Broader Approach Agreement – in this new clip filmed on-site in Naka, Japan. The clip shows that the six year assembly of JT-60SA is moving forward: the heart of the machine, the vacuum vessel, is now being built.

Implemented by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) and F4E, the advanced superconducting JT-60SA tokamak (SA stands for super advanced) will be used to quickly identify how to optimise plasma performance for ITER and will study advanced modes of plasma operation suitable for DEMO. A first plasma is foreseen for March 2019.

The JT-60SA vacuum vessel consists of 10 sectors made of 316 L stainless steel, 6.6 m high and 3.5 m wide, each weighing around 17 tonnes. The clip shows the placing of the first two sectors which will now be welded together. It is foreseen that the remaining sectors will be added to the structure at the rate of one per month, although before the placing and welding of the last sector, the 18 Toloidal Field coils (magnets which will keep the plasma in place during the fusion process) produced in Europe will be threaded over the vessel and fixed in place.

To learn more about the Broader Approach agreement and its projects, visit the Broader Approach website or download the Broader Approach brochure.

(Film clip courtesy of Ibaraki News)