A 40-year-old nuclear-fusion experiment bows out in style
Its final run set a record for how much energy such reactions can produce
THE HORSE archers of ancient Iran had a trick known as the Parthian shot. When retreating after a charge they were able to twist their bodies around in the saddle and loose a final salvo. That is not a bad description of the announcement made on February 8th by the controllers of the Joint European Torus (JET), a fusion experiment at Culham, England. After 40 years of operation, JET shut up shop in December. But the result of one of its final runs, conducted on October 3rd of last year, makes an excellent Parthian shot.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “JET goes out with a bang”
From the February 17th 2024 edition
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