Four new tokamaks will each try for a finite power output

The new generation of tokamak devices now being born is expected to produce a small net fusion power output. In Europe the site for the Joint European Torus has finally been selected after two years of wrangling among the members of the European Economic Community. The $210‐million JET is to be built at the Culham Laboratory, near Oxford, England. In the US, ground‐breaking ceremonies for the $239‐million Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor were recently held at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. In Japan, construction of components is underway for the JT‐60 device, to be built in a suburb of Tokyo still to be selected. The Soviet Union plans to build the largest member of the new tokamak generation, T‐20, at a cost of about $500 million. The Soviets will emphasize a capability for breeding tritium and fissile materials in T‐20, which might operate in the late 1980’s. The other three are to operate earlier.

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