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Tokamak (toroidal magnetic confinement)

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A tokamak confines a hot deuterium-tritium plasma in a torus using a strong toroidal magnetic field combined with a poloidal field generated by a large current driven through the plasma itself. That plasma current is what makes the tokamak both effective and awkward: it produces the twist needed for stable confinement, but it is not naturally steady, so pulsed or externally driven operation follows. Tokamaks hold every deuterium-tritium fusion power record ever set, all of them at JET, and the design underlies ITER, EAST, JT-60SA and the private-sector devices now under construction. The concept's central difficulty is holding density, temperature and energy confinement time high simultaneously and for long enough, which is the triple product. Reported long-pulse operation has advanced substantially: EAST sustained a high-confinement plasma for 1,066 seconds in January 2025, though with hydrogen-family fuel rather than a burning deuterium-tritium mix.

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Assembled from 46 blocks · 3 evidence · 30 related

  1. Story
  2. A tokamak confines a hot deuterium-tritium plasma in a torus using a strong toroidal magnetic field combined with a poloidal field generated by a large current driven through the plasma itself. That plasma current is what makes the tokamak both effective and awkward: it produces the twist needed for stable confinement, but it is not naturally steady, so pulsed or externally driven operation follows. Tokamaks hold every deuterium-tritium fusion power record ever set, all of them at JET, and the design underlies ITER, EAST, JT-60SA and the private-sector devices now under construction. The concept's central difficulty is holding density, temperature and energy confinement time high simultaneously and for long enough, which is the triple product. Reported long-pulse operation has advanced substantially: EAST sustained a high-confinement plasma for 1,066 seconds in January 2025, though with hydrogen-family fuel rather than a burning deuterium-tritium mix.
  3. Knowledge
  4. Tokamak (toroidal magnetic confinement)
  5. Fusion triple product (n·T·τ_E)
  6. Tritium
  7. Deuterium
  8. Connections
  9. Fusion triple product (n·T·τ_E)
  10. Tritium
  11. Deuterium
  12. Stellarator
  13. ITER
  14. Joint European Torus (JET)
  15. EAST (Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak)
  16. JET's DTE1 campaign sets the first deuterium-tritium fusion power record
  17. JET's DTE2 campaign releases 59 MJ in a single pulse
  18. JET sets the single-pulse fusion energy record of 69.26 MJ
  19. ITER presents an updated project baseline to the ITER Council
  20. EAST sustains a high-confinement plasma for 1,066 seconds
  21. Commonwealth Fusion Systems' declared target for net energy gain at SPARC
  22. Tokamak (toroidal magnetic confinement)
  23. Inertial confinement fusion
  24. Wendelstein 7-X
  25. Lawson criterion
  26. NIF exceeds the Lawson criterion for ignition
  27. EAST sustains a high-confinement plasma for 1,066 seconds
  28. Wendelstein 7-X sets a triple product record for long-duration plasmas
  29. Tokamak (toroidal magnetic confinement)
  30. Inertial confinement fusion
  31. ITER
  32. Tritium breeding blanket
  33. Private fusion sector
  34. JET's DTE1 campaign sets the first deuterium-tritium fusion power record
  35. JET's DTE2 campaign releases 59 MJ in a single pulse
  36. NIF achieves target gain greater than unity for the first time
  37. JET sets the single-pulse fusion energy record of 69.26 MJ
  38. JET ceases plasma operations after 105,842 pulses
  39. ITER's declared target date for the start of deuterium-tritium operation
  40. Tokamak (toroidal magnetic confinement)
  41. NIF achieves target gain greater than unity for the first time
  42. JET sets the single-pulse fusion energy record of 69.26 MJ
  43. Evidence
  44. JET's single-pulse fusion energy record, the DTE2 predecessor figure, and the date and pulse count at which JET operations ended
  45. ITER's current programme targets, the magnitude of slippage against the 2016 reference baseline, and the change of first wall material to tungsten
  46. Long-pulse steady-state high-confinement operation has advanced from hundreds to over a thousand seconds, which bears on duty cycle rather than on energy gain
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