Scientists set three records in fusion test

After a day of false starts and delays a team of European scientists has managed to set three records in the effort to produce energy from fusion, the nuclear reaction that powers the sun. A six-week series of fusion experiments began yesterday at the Joint European Torus (JET) facility based near Oxford in the UK.

The goal is to produce high-fusion power while getting as close as possible to "break-even", when the amount of fusion power produced matches the amount of energy needed to make the fusion reaction take place.

The team did not reach the break-even point, but it did manage to set three fusion records, according to Mr Tom Elsworth of JET. "We are absolutely over the moon," he said last night.

The experiments involve the fusion of two atoms of hydrogen to form one atom of helium, a reaction which releases tremendous amounts of energy.

Fusion reactions power the sun and the stars, but on earth special equipment is needed that can sustain massively high temperatures of up to 100 million degrees Celsius.

The experiment was to have taken place yesterday morning, but there were problems with heating equipment and then problems with electronics, Mr Elsworth said. The "high-power shot" was finally carried out just after 9 p.m.

It lasted for just under a second but produced 12 million watts of fusion power, a world record. The time of burn and wattage combined to give a fusion energy output of 11 million joules, another record, Mr Elsworth said.

The key break-even ratio, the Q figure, which is energy out divided by energy in, was 0.5. "That is also a world record and twice the previous best," he said.

"We plan several more highpower shots during the six-week period," Mr Elsworth said. There would also be other low-power experiments in an attempt to understand better what was happening within the fusion reaction itself.