Major Fusion Projects

This section takes up the world’s major fusion research projects one by one. Each device differs in what it aims for, the confinement approach it adopts, and how it is developed. Here we first survey the whole landscape and lay out a path for reading through the individual pages.

What You Will Learn in This Section

Devices that achieve fusion fall broadly into two groups: those that confine plasma with magnetic fields (magnetic confinement) and those that compress the fuel in an instant (inertial confinement). Even within the same magnetic approach, there are distinct characters such as the tokamak, the helical device, and the high-field tokamaks pursued by private companies. Reading this section gives you a bird’s-eye view of what each device is responsible for.

• The world’s largest experimental reactor, being built through international cooperation, is ITER. With many countries pooling their resources, it aims to demonstrate an energy gain factor of $Q \geq 10$.
• A large superconducting tokamak jointly operated by Japan and Europe is JT-60SA. It leads the way for ITER and seeks the optimal solution for plasma operation on the path toward a power-generating reactor.
• The leading example of the helical approach, which confines plasma by twisting the magnetic-field coils themselves, is LHD. It studies the strength of steady-state operation, which holds even without continuously driving a current.
• The centerpiece of the inertial confinement approach, which compresses fuel with lasers, is NIF. It is known as the facility that achieved fusion ignition in 2022.
• A private project that miniaturizes the device with high-temperature superconducting magnets and aims for an early demonstration of power generation is SPARC.

Recommended Reading Order

Start by reading ITER and grasp how an experimental reactor built through international cooperation has become the reference point of fusion development. Next, move on to JT-60SA, which supports ITER with the same tokamak approach, and the division of roles among large devices comes into view.

Then read LHD (helical) and NIF (laser), which take entirely different approaches, and you will feel that there is more than one way to confine plasma. Finally, reading SPARC, which symbolizes miniaturization and the private-sector movement, lets you sense even the atmosphere of the development race that has accelerated in recent years.

Prerequisite Knowledge

The explanations of each device assume the basic concept of how plasma is confined. If you have not yet learned the approaches themselves, such as the tokamak, the helical device, or inertial confinement, reading the Confinement Approaches section first will make the content of this section much easier to understand.