In an NTR, a working fluid, usually liquid hydrogen, is heated to a. A nuclear thermal rocket ( NTR) is a type of thermal rocket where the heat from a nuclear reaction, often nuclear fission, replaces the chemical energy of the propellants in a chemical rocket. 'It's the result of a collaboration between more than 500 scientists and engineers and more than 70 companies throughout Europe and Japan,' Davis said at Friday's inauguration.ĮU energy commissioner Kadri Simson said the JT-60SA was 'the most advanced tokamak in the world', calling the start of operations 'a milestone for fusion history'. The engine is in the left background with a shield structure in the mid/foreground. Sam Davis, deputy project leader for the JT-60SA, said the device will 'bring us closer to fusion energy'. Researchers at ITER, which is over budget, behind schedule and facing major technical problems, hope to achieve nuclear fusion technology's holy grail, net energy. The ultimate aim of both projects is to coax hydrogen nuclei inside to fuse into one heavier element, helium, releasing energy in the form of light and heat, and mimicking the process that takes place inside the Sun. It is a joint project between the European Union and Japan, and is the forerunner for its big brother in France, the under-construction International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The six-storey-high machine, in a hangar in Naka north of Tokyo, comprises a donut-shaped 'tokamak' vessel set to contain swirling plasma heated up 200 million degrees Celsius (360 million degrees Fahrenheit). The goal of the JT-60SA reactor is to investigate the feasibility of fusion as a safe, large-scale and carbon-free source of net energy - with more energy generated than is put into producing it.

Fusion vs fission wiki