GLOBAL EYE
Inside the JET tokamak, with a superimposed image of hot plasma
Anuclear reactor in the UK has just broken a new fusion record. On 8 February 2024, representatives from the Joint European Torus (JET) facility declared that the reactor’s final tests yielded 69.26 megajoules of heat from just 0.21 milligrams of fuel, the equivalent of burning two kilograms of coal. This is more total energy – though not more net positive energy – than any other fusion reaction has produced thus far. Tests such as this could help unlock fusion as a viable source of clean near-limitless energy.