September 9, 1997. Copyright, 1997, Graphic News. All rights reserved

NUCLEAR FUSION WILL POWER OUR FUTURE
By Heather Holve, Science Correspondent

LONDON, September 9, Graphic News- EuropeÕs leadership in nuclear fusion research offers the potential for a clean, safe energy supply in the new millennium, according to physicist Dr Derek Stork in his presentation to the British Association annual festival of science.

Fusion energy powers the sun and stars. But here on earth the creation of necessary conditions for fusion proves challenging. At temperatures in excess of 100 million degrees Centigrade, special forms of hydrogen gas (deuterium and tritium), become ionised into plasma. When this is confined by pressure or a magnetic field, the deuterium and tritium fuse together releasing energy and helium.

Successful trials at JET (Joint European Torus), the worldÕs largest magnetic confinement system, produced nearly 2 mega-Watts of heat for over one second. Dr Derek Stork, head of the Neutral Beam Heating Divison at JET, holds higher hopes for a new trial beginning this month. The team aims to sustain 10MW of power for 10 seconds. 

Using video clips of work at JET, the presentation will discuss the world energy situation and the need to develop new sources of large-scale electricity supply. With fusion, we can produce an amount of electricity 10 million times greater per gramme of input fuel compared to our current conventional power stations and in such a way that makes 20 million times less waste than present methods.

The JET project, supported by European funding and expertise, has provided critical information for the next generation of reactor, the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor). This will be the first reactor in the world to be built as a trial for prototype energy generators for the mid 21st century.

Source: JET

NOTE TO EDITORS:
British Association Annual Festival of Science, Leeds, September 7-12, 1997
Fusion Power Ð Energy for the Next Millennia:
A presentation by Dr Derek Stork, head of the Neutral Beam Heating Divison, JET. 

JET (Joint European Torus)
Abingdon
Oxfordshire OX14 3EA
England
Tel: +44 (0)1235 528822
Fax: +44 (0)1235 464905

JET is the largest research and development project in the world devoted to the effort to make fusion (the power driving the sun) available for electric power production on Earth. Funded by the European Union and based in Britain, it has spearheaded the work which has given Europe a world lead in this field.