A nuclear fusion site in Oxfordshire which was part of a European research programme will end its experiments after 40 years.

The JET fusion laboratory at Culham Science Centre, in Abingdon, undertook its first experiment in June 1983.

Professor Barry Green, who was present for that first test as the lead engineer, told the BBC: “It felt brilliant. One thing is to work on a design, another thing is to operate it.”

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For the next 40 years, the European programme took on the challenge of creating nuclear fusion and producing endless clean energy.

However, Saturday (October 14) marks the reactor’s last ever test.

The UK and the Europeans made the choice to team up and from this partnership the Joint European Torus (JET) site was born.

Scientists were called in from across the continent to the project in Culham, including Professor Green, an Australian working on plasma physics in Germany who oversaw the design and construction of the site.

The model chosen was tokamak, which employs magnetic fields to confine the hot ionised gas known as plasma, inside a vessel.

Plasma allows the light elements to fuse and yield energy.

A crucial decision was also made around using a mix of radioactive hydrogen elements, rather than just one. It has been identified as the most efficient reaction for fusion reactors.

The JET site came up against many difficulties and delays over the years, with experiments suspended for almost a decade in the 2000s while the internal structure was replaced, Fernanda Rimini, JET senior exploitation manager, told the BBC.

The JET science programme leader Joelle Mailloux, who is overseeing the third round of experiments which end today, told the BBC that the key challenges being focused on are making the plasma more stable, spreading the power load and looking at improving materials in the reactor to withstand the conditions.

Once the experiments end, scientists will have a lot of lessons to take away from the JET project.

Speaking to the BBC, Ms Rimini said: “The decommissioning will look at analysing what has happened to the reactor materials and how they have change.

“This will help better maintain other fusion sites.”

The UK government has committed to spending £650 million on a new UK fusion project between now and 2027, which will include a new prototype fusion energy plant in Nottinghamshire called STEP.

Paul Methven, STEP programme director at the UK Atomic Energy Agency, told the BBC: “On endeavours like this, you need to be simultaneously really ambitious and also realistic.

“We are driving pretty hard towards our first operations to be in the early 2040s.”

 

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This story was written by Matthew Norman, he joined the team in 2022 as a Facebook community reporter.

Matthew covers Bicester and focuses on finding stories from diverse communities.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Matthew.norman@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @OxMailMattN1