Is research at JET still aimed at the ultimate goal of commercial energy production?
Yes. Results from JET and other tokamaks around the world have given scientists tremendous confidence that they can control and confine the plasma sufficiently that ITER will deliver sustainable fusion power production. However, work continues on JET and other machines to optimise the plasma confinement etc. – work in the areas of how to exhaust plasma impurities in the divertor of the tokamak and how to reliably induce so-called “transport barriers” in the plasma (and thus improve the insulation of the burning plasma core) are particularly important at the moment.
