JET (Joint European Torus)
JET (Joint European Torus) is a tokamak fusion device run by UKAEA / EUROfusion in United Kingdom. It is closed. Like every fusion device built so far, it has produced no net electricity.
World record 69 megajoules of fusion energy sustained over five seconds, October 2023, on its final deuterium-tritium campaign.
For forty years the most productive fusion device in the world, and the only one besides TFTR to run on the actual deuterium-tritium fuel a power plant would use. It shut permanently in December 2023. Its record, 69 MJ over five seconds, is roughly the energy in two litres of petrol, which is a useful calibration for how far the field still has to go.
| Organisation | UKAEA / EUROfusion |
|---|---|
| Approach | tokamak |
| Confinement | magnetic |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Status | Closed |
| First plasma | 1983 |
| Target date | none stated |
|---|---|
| Power target | none stated |
| Energy gain target | none stated |
| Net electricity | No. no fusion device has produced any |
Other tokamak projects
Fusion needs tritium, and the world's civilian stock comes mostly from CANDU fission reactors. See the fusion overview.
JET (Joint European Torus) in context
14 of the 24 fusion projects on record use the tokamak approach: 7 operating, 3 under construction, 3 planned and 1 closed.
Its first plasma is dated 1983, 43 years ago: the earliest of 15 projects on record with a first-plasma date.
| Measure | JET (Joint European Torus) | Median of all projects | Standing |
|---|---|---|---|
| First plasma | 1983 | 2015 | 1 of 15 (earliest first) |
Worked out from the entries on this site only, so a figure compares JET (Joint European Torus) with what is recorded here, not with everything that exists. An entry with no value for a measure is left out of that measure's ranking and median.
Sources
- World Nuclear Association, Nuclear Fusion Power · retrieved 2026-09-07
How these sources are used, including the corrections applied on top of them and what is deliberately left blank · download the underlying data