It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, February 09, 2024
BAD NEWS
Physical activity is insufficient to counter cardiovascular risk associated with sugar-sweetened beverage consumption
UNIVERSITÉ LAVAL
Québec, February 8, 2024 - Contrary to popular belief, the benefits of physical activity do not outweigh the risks of cardiovascular disease associated with drinking sugar-sweetened beverages, according to a new study led by Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Jean-Philippe Drouin-Chartier, professor at Université Laval’s Faculty of Pharmacy, was a co-author.
Sugar-sweetened beverages are the largest source of added sugars in the North American diet. Their consumption is associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, the world’s leading cause of death.
“The marketing strategies for these drinks often show active people drinking these beverages. It suggests that sugary drink consumption has no negative effects on health if you’re physically active. Our research aimed to assess this hypothesis,” says Drouin-Chartier.
For the study, the scientists used two cohorts totalling around 100,000 adults, followed for about 30 years. The data show that those who consumed sugar-sweetened beverages more than twice a week had a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, regardless of physical activity levels.
The study found that even if the recommended 150 minutes of weekly physical activity protects against cardiovascular disease, it’s not enough to counter the adverse effects of sugar-sweetened beverages. “Physical activity reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease associated with sugar-sweetened beverages by half, but it does not fully eliminate it,” says Drouin-Chartier.
The frequency of consumption considered in the study—twice a week—is relatively low but still is significantly associated with cardiovascular disease risk. With daily consumption, the risk of cardiovascular disease is even higher.
For this reason, Drouin-Chartier underlines the importance of targeting the omnipresence of sugar-sweetened beverages in the food environment. This category includes soft and carbonated drinks (with or without caffeine), lemonade, and fruit cocktails. The study did not specifically consider energy drinks, but they also tend to be sugar-sweetened.
For artificially sweetened drinks, often presented as an alternative solution to sugar-sweetened beverages, their consumption was not associated with higher risk of cardiovascular diseases. “Replacing sugar-sweetened beverages by diet drinks is good, because it reduces the amount of sugar. But the best drink option remains water,” explains Drouin-Chartier.
“Our findings provide further support for public health recommendations and policies to limit people’s intake of sugar-sweetened beverages, as well as to encourage people to meet and maintain adequate physical activity levels,” added lead author Lorena Pacheco, a research scientist in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard Chan School.
The study was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The authors are Lorena S. Pacheco, Deirdre K. Tobias, Yanping Li, Shilpa N. Bhupathiraju, Walter C. Willett, David S. Ludwig, Cara B. Ebbeling, Danielle E. Haslam, Jean-Philippe Drouin-Chartier, Frank B. Hu and Marta Guasch-Ferré.
Sugar-sweetened or artificially-sweetened beverage consumption, physical activity, and risk of cardiovascular disease in adults: a prospective cohort study
CITIZEN SCIENCE
New fossil site of worldwide importance uncovered in southern France
Nearly 400 exceptionally well-preserved fossils dating back 470 million years have been discovered in the south of France by two amateur paleontologists. This new fossil site of worldwide importance has been analyzed by scientists from the University of Lausanne, in collaboration with the CNRS and international teams. This discovery provides unprecedented information on the polar ecosystems of the Ordovician period.
Paleontology enthusiasts have unearthed one of the world's richest and most diverse fossil sites from the Lower Ordovician period (around 470 million years ago). Located in Montagne Noire, in the Hérault department of France, this deposit of over 400 fossils is distinguished by an exceptionally well-preserved fauna. In addition to shelly components, it contains extremely rare soft elements such as digestive systems and cuticles, in a remarkable state of preservation. Moreover, this biota was once located very close to the South Pole, revealing the composition of Ordovician southernmost ecosystems.
At the Faculty of Geosciences and Environment at the University of Lausanne (UNIL), scientists have collaborated with the CNRS and international teams to carry out the first analyses of this deposit, known as the Cabrières Biota. The results are published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.
Ordovician climate refugia
Analyses of the new biota reveal the presence of arthropods (a group that includes millipedes and shrimps) and cnidarians (a group that includes jellyfish and corals), as well as a large number of algae and sponges. The site's high biodiversity suggests that this area served as a refuge for species that had escaped the high temperatures prevailing further north at the time.
"At this time of intense global warming, animals were indeed living in high latitude refugia, escaping extreme equatorial temperatures," points out Farid Saleh, researcher at the University of Lausanne, and first author of the study. "The distant past gives us a glimpse of our possible near future," adds Jonathan Antcliffe, researcher at the University of Lausanne and co-author of the study.
For their part, Eric Monceret and Sylvie Monceret-Goujon, the amateurs who discovered the site, amateurs who discovered the site, add with enthusiasm: "We've been prospecting and searching for fossils since the age of twenty," says Eric Monceret. "When we came across this amazing biota, we understood the importance of the discovery and went from amazement to excitement," adds Sylvie Monceret-Goujon.
This first publication marks the start of a long research program involving large-scale excavations and in-depth fossil analyses. Using innovative methods and techniques, the aim is to reveal the internal and external anatomy of the organisms, as well as to deduce their phylogenetic relationships and modes of life.
A new fossil bed has been uncovered in the French department of Hérault through the perseverance of two ardent amateur palaeontologists.
Sylvie Monceret is one of the people who discovered biota.
Eric Monceret is one of the persons who discovered the biota
The Cabrières Biota (France) provides insights into Ordovician polar ecosystems
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
9-Feb-2024
Global study: Wild megafauna shape ecosystem properties
A new meta-analysis across six continents establishes that large wild herbivores affect ecosystems in numerous important ways, from soils to vegetation to smaller animals and promote ecosystem variability
For millions of years, a variety of large herbivores, or megafauna, influenced terrestrial ecosystems. Among many others, these included elephants in Europe, giant wombats in Australia, and ground sloths in South America. However, these animals experienced a wave of extinctions coinciding with the worldwide expansion of humans, leading to dramatic but still not fully understood changes in ecosystems. Even the survivors of these extinctions strongly declined, and many are currently threatened with extinction.
While there are many case studies as well as theories about the effects of large animals, formal attempts to quantitatively synthesize their effects and establish generality have been lacking.
A new study, conducted by an international team led by researchers from Aarhus University and the University of Göttingen, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, has gathered numerous individual case studies and analyzed the findings. They show that large animals have a variety of generalizable impacts – impacts that are likely missing from most of today’s ecosystems.
The impact of large animals on ecosystems
Among the identified general impacts of large wild herbivores are
shifts in soil and plant nutrients
the promotion of open and semi-open vegetation
the regulation of the population of smaller animals
Moreover, one of the key findings of the studies is that megafauna promote ecosystem diversity by increasing the structural variability in the vegetation.
“The positive impact on variability in vegetation structure is particularly noteworthy, given that environmental heterogeneity is known as a universal driver of biodiversity. While our study mostly looked at the impact of megafauna on small scales, our findings suggest that they promote biodiversity even on the landscape level,” says PhD student at Aarhus University Jonas Trepel, who led the study.
Large herbivores change vegetation structure by consuming biomass, breaking woody plants, and trampling smaller plants – impacts that are hypothesized to depend on the animal’s body size. Given that the analyzed dataset spanned two magnitudes of body size (45-4500 kg), the researchers were able to test specifically how this important trait shapes the impact of large animals. They found, for example, that megafauna communities which include larger herbivores tend to have positive effects on local plant diversity, while communities composed of smaller species (e.g. <100 kg) tend to decrease local plant diversity.
“Large herbivores can eat lower-quality food such as branches and stems, which may result in proportionally greater impacts on dominant plant species and thus give less competitive plants better odds in their struggle for sunlight and space,” explains Erick Lundgren, one of the senior authors of the study.
Assistant professor Elizabeth le Roux, who is also one of the senior authors, adds:
“These findings support the expectation that many small herbivores cannot fully compensate for the loss of a few large ones."
The benefits of a meta-analysis
This study is a so-called meta-analysis. This means that the researchers have analyzed data from all available studies on the subject in order to find general patterns. Meta-analyses are especially powerful in their conclusions because they draw on big data pools and make it possible to draw conclusions that go beyond a local context.
While many recent ecological studies have shown or hypothesized the importance of large animals in ecosystems, according to senior author Jens-Christian Svenning, the meta-analytical study is an important step forward by synthesizing direct experimental and semi-experimental evidence from across the globe to assess the generality of these effects quantitatively.
“This global meta-analysis shows that large herbivores have important general effects on ecosystems and their biodiversity," explains professor Jens-Christian Svenning, continuing: “Importantly, our analysis shows that these effects cut across a broad range of ecologically important phenomena, from soil conditions to vegetation structure to plant and animal species composition, affecting not only their general state but also their variation across landscapes.”
Jens-Christian Svenning is the director of Center for Ecological Dynamics in a Novel Biosphere (ECONOVO), a Danish National Research Foundation center of excellence at Aarhus University.
Fact box: How did the researchers get these results?
A key aspect of the 297 studies, including 5,990 individual data points, is that the researchers compare adjacent areas with clear differences in the megafauna community (i.e. megafauna present or absent) due to known reasons. The vast majority of studies in the data set are so-called exclosure studies, in which some parts of a field site are fenced up to prevent large animals from entering. By comparing different plots inside and outside of the fences, researchers are then able to assess in which ways megafauna impact the ecosystem.
Importance of ecosystem biodiversity in responding to global change
The identified general importance of large herbivores for ecosystem functioning implies that important functions are missing due to the loss of wild megafauna. This may affect the approach to nature conservation and ecosystem restoration.
“The majority of today’s protected areas are missing large animals – and thus also an important range of functions. So even areas we consider to be pristine ecosystems are probably not as natural as we may think. Reintroducing large animals could be a key avenue to make these areas a bit more dynamic and used to disturbances,” says Jonas Trepel and continues:
“By increasing the structural variability in an ecosystem, large animals may provide refuges, for example during extreme weather events, but also open up more available niches for other species. This could prevent one or a few species from dominating and allows species with similar ecological attributes to coexist – which in turn would make the ecosystem more resilient. Ultimately, that may help them to deal with the consequences of global change.”
Given the important functions that large animals have on ecosystems and their biodiversity, the researchers conclude that it is crucial to not just protect the few remaining megafauna species, but also to reestablish megafauna populations as part of restoration efforts to achieve positive outcomes for Earth's biosphere, not least under the increasingly unprecedented global environmental conditions.
Following the arrival of the first farmers in Scandinavia 5,900 years ago, the hunter-gatherer population was wiped out within a few generations, according to a new study from Lund University in Sweden, among others. The results, which are contrary to prevailing opinion, are based on DNA analysis of skeletons and teeth found in what is now Denmark.
The extensive study has been published as four separate articles in the journal Nature. An international research team, of which Lund University in Sweden is a member, has been able to draw new conclusions about the effects of migration on ancient populations by extracting DNA from skeletal parts and teeth of prehistoric people.
The study shows, among other things, that there have been two almost total population turnovers in Denmark over the past 7,300 years. The first population change happened 5,900 years ago when a farmer population, with a different origin and appearance, drove out the gatherers, hunters and fishers who had previously populated Scandinavia. Within a few generations, almost the entire hunter-gatherer population was wiped out.
“This transition has previously been presented as peaceful. However, our study indicates the opposite. In addition to violent death, it is likely that new pathogens from livestock finished off many gatherers,” says Anne Birgitte Nielsen, geology researcher and head of the Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory at Lund University.
A thousand years later, about 4,850 years ago, another population change took place when people with genetic roots in Yamnaya – a livestock herding people with origins in southern Russia – came to Scandinavia and wiped out the previous farmer population. Once again, this could have involved both violence and new pathogens. These big-boned people pursued a semi-nomadic life on the steppes, tamed animals, kept domestic cattle and moved over large areas using horses and carts. The people who settled in our climes were a mix between Yamnaya and Eastern European Neolithic people. This genetic profile is dominant in today’s Denmark, whereas the DNA profile of the first farmer population has been essentially erased.
“This time there was also a rapid population turnover, with virtually no descendants from the predecessors. We don’t have as much DNA material from Sweden, but what there is points to a similar course of events. In other words, many Swedes are to a great extent also descendants of these semi-nomads,” says Anne Birgitte Nielsen, who contributed quantitative pollen data which shows how the vegetation changed in connection with the population changes.
The results do not just overturn previous theories about amorous and peaceful meetings between groups of people. The study also provides a deepened understanding of historical migration flows, and the interpretation of archaeological finds and changes in vegetation and land use found in palaeoecological data.
“Our results help to enhance our knowledge of our heredity and our understanding of the development of certain diseases. Something that in the long term could be beneficial, for example in medical research,” concludes Anne Birgitte Nielsen.
In addition to Lund University, around 40 European, American and Australian higher education institutions and organisations took part in the study.
“It is very likely that we will discover new species on this cruise,” says Dr Jan Dierking. The marine biologist from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel is the chief scientist of the expedition MSM126 “Jellyweb Madeira” on the German research vessel MARIA S. MERIAN, which will set off tomorrow to explore the underwater habitats around Madeira. And his expectations are probably not too high, as the planned investigations will mainly focus on the deep sea, which is still largely unexplored. One reason for this is the extreme conditions: it is dark, cold and there is enormous pressure. Above all, the deep sea is deep. In combination, this means that sampling and observing deep-sea systems is extremely difficult.
During the MSM126 cruise, the international team of 22 scientists from five countries, including world-leading experts in various fields of research, will therefore use a wide range of state-of-the-art instruments and technologies, including remote sensing, camera systems, a deep-sea robot, oceanographic sensors and various nets, to shed light on deep-sea biodiversity and food webs.
“We will be using echosounders and towed cameras to map three areas around the island of Madeira,” explains co-expedition leader Dr Henk-Jan Hoving, “a deep-sea canyon, an extensive underwater plateau and a submarine ridge, from shallower depths of 50m down to 3000m”. The XOFOS (Ocean Floor Observing System) photo and video system will film and photograph the seafloor for mapping purposes. The deep-sea camera system PELAGIOS (Pelagic in Situ Observation System), equipped with a camera, light sources and sensors to measure environmental data, can be used day and night in the deep-water column to document organisms alive in their natural environment. Dr Hoving: “We hope to find layers with abundant and diverse life and previously undiscovered organisms and encounter underexplored habitats such as coral gardens or deep-sea reefs, and will then return to these areas for focussed sampling afterwards”.
For sampling, they have what Jan Dierking and Henk-Jan Hoving call the “Swiss army knife of marine research”: the ROV PHOCA, a remotely operated underwater robot that can dive down to depths of up to 2000m, and transmit live, high-definition video from the deep sea to the surface via a fibre-optic connection. It can be configurated with a variety of scientific instruments depending on the mission. During MSM126, it will be deployed both in open water and on the seabed. Floating in open water, a “slurp gun”, a kind of vacuum cleaner, will collect fragile gelatinous organisms – “a huge opportunity to bring up deep-sea species intact”. On the seabed, the ROV will sample sediments and benthic organisms including corals and sponges. It will also serve as a platform for experiments on so-called food falls, i.e. what sinks to the seafloor from the upper layers of the ocean. “We want to see how organisms in the open water are linked to the deep sea: Who eats whom, who competes with whom?” explains Dr Jan Dierking. “I am very excited to see what the eye on the seabed will reveal.”
A key question is what role gelatinous zooplankton, or jellyfish, play in the oceanic food web. Not much is known about this because jellyfish are difficult to study. They are very fragile and are difficult to capture intact in nets, so their importance in food webs is probably underestimated. “This group of organisms is very diverse,” explains Dr Henk-Jan Hoving, “some of them can grow to tens of metres in length. Some are predators, feeding on crustaceans, fish or other gelatinous organisms. Others rely on detritus, the dead and decaying material that is abundant in the water column”.
Improving our understanding of the food web of jellyfish, also known as the jelly web, is essential to our understanding of marine food webs. Dr Dierking explains: “The jelly web probably plays a crucial role in the processing of organic matter, because jellyfish can occur in large numbers, and when such a ‘jelly bloom’ dies, potentially a large amount of this biomass sinks. But for many regions, including Madeira, we don't know how much of it actually reaches the seabed or who feeds on it”. The contribution of the jelly web to the export of carbon to the deep sea could be significant.
On Madeira itself, the expedition is generating a lot of public interest. For example, there will be a live Q&A session on board for schoolchildren, who will be able to look over the scientists' shoulders as they work. Dr Dierking: “There is a big effort in Madeira to increase the knowledge of the deep sea in order to better protect it”. He hopes that the data gathered during the expedition will not only fill knowledge gaps, but also make a concrete contribution to the protection of habitats and biodiversity in the sea around Madeira.
The jelly web was the focus of the EU Horizon 2020 project GoJelly (coordinated by Jamileh Javidpour, University of Southern Denmark, in which GEOMAR was a core partner), which sparked the idea for the MSM126 expedition. Its results will now be exploited via the collaborations with partner institutes of the cruise, and will provide the foundation to pursue deep sea work with the Regional Agency for the Development of Research, Technology and Innovation (ARDITI) Madeira in the future.
Expedition at a Glance:
RV MARIA S. MERIAN Expedition MSM126
Name: Jellyweb Madeira
Region: Central East Atlantic
Chief Scientists: Dr Jan Dierking, Dr Henk-Jan Hoving
Start: 09 February 2024, Funchal (Portugal)
End: 04 March 2024, Las Palmas (Spain)
Project Funding:
The expedition is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), and the German Research Foundation (DFG).
HAVE SOME MADERIA M' DEAR
SCI-FI-TEK
Scientists just set a nuclear fusion record in a step toward unleashing the limitless, clean energy source
Angela Dewan, CNN Thu, February 8, 2024
Scientists and engineers near the English city of Oxford have set a nuclear fusion energy record, they announced Thursday, bringing the clean, futuristic power source another step closer to reality.
Using the Joint European Torus (JET) — a huge, donut-shaped machine known as a tokamak — the scientists sustained a record 69 megajoules of fusion energy for five seconds, using just 0.2 milligrams of fuel. That’s enough to power roughly 12,000 households for the same amount of time.
Nuclear fusion is the same process that powers the sun and other stars, and is widely seen as the holy grail of clean energy. Experts have worked for decades to master the highly complex process on Earth, and if they do, fusion could generate enormous amounts of energy with tiny inputs of fuel and emit zero planet-warming carbon in the process.
The scientists fed the tokamak deuterium and tritium, which are hydrogen variants that future commercial fusion plants are most likely to use.
To generate fusion energy, the team raised temperatures in the machine to 150 million degrees Celsius — around 10 times hotter than the core of the sun. That extreme heat forces the deuterium and tritium to fuse together and form helium, a process that in turn releases enormous amounts of heat.
The tokamak is lined with strong magnets that hold the plasma in. The heat is then harnessed and used to produce electricity.
The experiment is the last of its kind for JET, which has operated for more than 40 years. Its last experiment — and new record — is promising news for newer fusion projects, said Ambrogio Fasoli, CEO of EUROfusion, the consortium of 300 experts behind the experiment. He pointed to ITER, the world’s biggest tokamak being built in southern France, and DEMO, a machine planned to follow ITER with the aim of producing a higher amount of energy, like a fusion plant prototype.
“Our successful demonstration of operational scenarios for future fusion machines like ITER and DEMO, validated by the new energy record, instil greater confidence in the development of fusion energy,” Fasoli said in a statement. A view of Torus Hall, where the JET tokamak machine lies. - United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority
While fusion energy would be a gamechanger for the climate crisis — which is caused primarily by humans burning fossil fuels — it’s a technology that’s still likely to need many years to commericialize. By the time it’s fully developed, it would be too late to use it as a main tool to address climate change, according to Aneeqa Khan, research fellow in nuclear fusion at the University of Manchester.
And myriad challenges remain. Khan points out that the team used more energy to carry out the experiment than it generated, for example.
“This is a great scientific result, but we are still a way off commercial fusion. Building a fusion power plant also has many engineering and materials challenges,” she said. “However, investment in fusion is growing and we are making real progress. We need to be training up a huge number of people with the skills to work in the field and I hope the technology will be used in the latter half of the century.”
The record was announced the same day that the European Union’s climate and weather monitoring service, Copernicus, confirmed that the world has breached a global warming threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius over a 12-month period for the first time.
Scientists are more concerned with longer-term warming over that threshold, but it is a symbolic reminder that the world is hurtling toward a level of climate change that it will struggle to adapt to.
Climate science shows that the world must nearly halve its greenhouse gas emissions this decade and reach zero net emissions by 2050 to keep global warming from spiraling to catastrophic levels. That means making a rapid transition away from fossil fuels, like coal, oil and gas.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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Fusion research facility JET’s final tritium experiments yield new energy record
EUROFUSION
IMAGE:
LOOKING INSIDE THE JOINT EUROPEAN TORUS TOKAMAK AT PULSE #104522 FROM 3 OCTOBER 2023, WHICH SET A NEW FUSION ENERGY RECORD OF 69 MEGAJOULES.
The Joint European Torus (JET), one of the world’s largest and most powerful fusion machines, has demonstrated the ability to reliably generate fusion energy, whilst simultaneously setting a world-record in energy output.
These notable accomplishments represent a significant milestone in the field of fusion science and engineering.
In JET's final deuterium-tritium experiments (DTE3), high fusion power was consistently produced for 5 seconds, resulting in a ground-breaking record of 69 megajoules using a mere 0.2 milligrams of fuel.
JET is a tokamak, a design which uses powerful magnetic fields to confine a plasma in the shape of a doughnut. Most approaches to creating commercial fusion favour the use of two hydrogen variants – deuterium and tritium. When deuterium and tritium fuse together they produce helium and vast amounts of energy, a reaction that will form the basis of future fusion powerplants.
Dr Fernanda Rimini, JET Senior Exploitation Manager, said:
“We can reliably create fusion plasmas using the same fuel mixture to be used by commercial fusion energy powerplants, showcasing the advanced expertise developed over time.”
Professor Ambrogio Fasoli, Programme Manager (CEO) at EUROfusion, said:
“Our successful demonstration of operational scenarios for future fusion machines like ITER and DEMO, validated by the new energy record, instil greater confidence in the development of fusion energy. Beyond setting a new record, we achieved things we’ve never done before and deepened our understanding of fusion physics.”
Dr Emmanuel Joffrin, EUROfusion Tokamak Exploitation Task Force Leader from CEA, said:
“Not only did we demonstrate how to soften the intense heat flowing from the plasma to the exhaust, we also showed in JET how we can get the plasma edge into a stable state thus preventing bursts of energy reaching the wall. Both techniques are intended to protect the integrity of the walls of future machines. This is the first time that we've ever been able to test those scenarios in a deuterium-tritium environment.”
Over 300 scientists and engineers from EUROfusion – a consortium of researchers across Europe, contributed to these landmark experiments at the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) site in Oxford, showcasing the unparalleled dedication and effectiveness of the international team at JET.
The results solidify JET’s pivotal role in advancing safe, low-carbon, and sustainable fusion energy.
UK Minister for Nuclear and Networks, Andrew Bowie, said:
“JET's final fusion experiment is a fitting swansong after all the groundbreaking work that has gone into the project since 1983. We are closer to fusion energy than ever before thanks to the international team of scientists and engineers in Oxfordshire.
“The work doesn’t stop here. Our Fusion Futures programme has committed £650 million to invest in research and facilities, cementing the UK’s position as a global fusion hub.”
JET concluded its scientific operations at the end of December 2023.
Professor Sir Ian Chapman, UKAEA CEO, said:
“JET has operated as close to powerplant conditions as is possible with today’s facilities, and its legacy will be pervasive in all future powerplants. It has a critical role in bringing us closer to a safe and sustainable future.”
JET’s research findings have critical implications not only for ITER – a fusion research mega-project being built in the south of France – but also for the UK’s STEP prototype powerplant, Europe’s demonstration powerplant, DEMO, and other global fusion projects, pursuing a future of safe, low-carbon, and sustainable energy.
Dr Pietro Barabaschi, ITER Director-General, said:
“Throughout its lifecycle, JET has been remarkably helpful as a precursor to ITER: in the testing of new materials, in the development of innovative new components, and nowhere more than in the generation of scientific data from Deuterium-Tritium fusion. The results obtained here will directly and positively impact ITER, validating the way forward and enabling us to progress faster toward our performance goals. On a personal note, it has been for me a great privilege having myself been at JET for a few years. There I had the opportunity to learn from many exceptional people.”
JET has been instrumental in advancing fusion energy for over four decades, symbolising international scientific collaboration, engineering excellence, and the commitment to harness the power of fusion energy – the same reactions that fuel the Sun and stars.
JET demonstrated sustained fusion over five seconds at high power and set a world-record in 2021. JET’s first deuterium-tritium experiments took place in 1997.
As it transitions into the next phase of its life cycle for repurposing and decommissioning, a celebration in late February 2024 will honour its founding vision and the collaborative spirit that has driven its success.
The achievements at JET, from the major scientific milestones to the setting of energy records, underscores the facility’s enduring legacy in the evolution of fusion technology.
Its contributions to fusion science and engineering have played a crucial role in accelerating the development of fusion energy, which promises to be a safe, low carbon and sustainable part of the world’s future energy supply.
- ENDS -
Looking inside the Joint European Torus tokamak at pulse #104522 from 3 October 2023, which set a new fusion energy record of 69 megajoules.
Fusion, the process that powers stars like our sun, promises a clean baseload source of heat and electricity for the long term, using small amounts of fuel that can be sourced worldwide from inexpensive materials.
When a mix of two forms of hydrogen (deuterium and tritium) is heated to form a controlled plasma at extreme temperatures – 10 times hotter than the core of the Sun – they fuse together to create helium and release energy which can be harnessed to produce electricity.
Deuterium and tritium are two heavier variants of ordinary hydrogen and together offer the highest reactivity of all fusion fuels. At a temperature of 150 million degrees Celsius, deuterium and tritium fuse together to form helium and release a tremendous amount of heat energy without any greenhouse contributions. Fusion is inherently safe in that it cannot start a run-away process and produces no long-lived waste.
There is more than one way of achieving fusion. Our approach is to hold the hot plasma using strong magnets in a ring-shaped machine called a ‘tokamak’, and then to harness this heat to produce electricity in a similar way to existing power stations.
About the fusion energy fuel
Most approaches to creating commercial fusion favour the use of two hydrogen variants – deuterium and tritium. When deuterium and tritium fuse together they produce helium and vast amounts of energy – a reaction that will form the basis of future fusion powerplants.
Deuterium is plentiful and can be extracted from water. Tritium is a radioactive variant of hydrogen with a half-life of about 12 years. Tritium can be farmed from lithium.
About the final deuterium-tritium experiments (DTE3)
JET is the only tokamak fusion machine in operation capable of handling tritium fuel. The third round of experiments using deuterium and tritium fuel were conducted over seven weeks from 31st August to 14th October 2023. They focused on three areas – plasma science, materials science and neutronics.
JET's fusion energy record is a result of the advanced capability in operating deuterium-tritium plasmas. These experiments were primarily designed as the first-ever opportunity to demonstrate the feasibility of minimising heat loads on the wall in a deuterium-tritium environment, crucial for ITER scenarios.
JET has been the largest and most successful fusion experiment in the world, and a central research facility of the European Fusion Programme. JET is based at the UKAEA campus in Culham, UK and has been a collective facility used by more than 31 European laboratories under the management of the EUROfusion consortium—experts, students and staff from across Europe, co-funded by the European Commission.
Since its inception in 1983 as a joint European project, JET has been at the forefront of groundbreaking achievements, spearheading the pursuit of safe, low-carbon, and sustainable fusion energy solutions to meet the world's future energy demands.
Over its lifetime JET has delivered crucial insights into the complex mechanics of fusion, allowing scientists to plan the international fusion experiment ITER and DEMO, the demonstration fusion power plant currently under design by the European fusion community.
Built by Europe and used collaboratively by European researchers over its lifetime, JET became UKAEA property in October 2021, celebrated its 40th anniversary in June last year, and ceased plasma operations at the end of 2023.
About EUROfusion
EUROfusion, the European Consortium for the Development of Fusion Energy, is at the forefront of advancing fusion technology with the goal of establishing fusion as a safe, sustainable, and economically viable source of energy. It champions the pursuit of fusion as a large-scale, sustainable energy source through its coordination of Europe's fusion research activities.
Operating under the Euratom Research and Training Programme, EUROfusion advances fusion technology and research across eight key missions, as detailed in the European Fusion Research Roadmap. The programme is dedicated to paving the way for fusion power plants, leveraging collaborative research and innovation to overcome the technical and scientific challenges of harnessing fusion energy. This effort is epitomized by EUROfusion's joint and very successful exploitation of fusion experimental machines across Europe, including the operation of JET until the end of 2023, showcasing a unique and concrete contribution to fusion science. This includes preparation for the scientific exploitation of ITER, as well as laying the technological groundwork for DEMO, the planned demonstration fusion power plant.
EUROfusion's commitment extends to fostering the next generation of European fusion researchers, ensuring a skilled workforce for ITER and future machines. By integrating efforts across 195 research entities in 29 European countries, EUROfusion is actively shaping the future of energy, emphasizing safety, sustainability, and economic viability in fusion technology.
The Euratom Research and Training Programme (2021-2025) is a complementary funding programme to the EU Horizon Europe Programme. It is dedicated to nuclear research and innovation in fission and fusion. The Euratom Programme includes both direct actions undertaken by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, and indirect actions conducted by multi-partner consortia. One example is EUROfusion, responsible for implementing Europe-wide fusion research.
With a budget of €1.38 billion for the period 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2025, the Euratom Research and Training Programme is focused on the continuous improvement of nuclear safety, security, and radiation protection, as well as fusion energy research. €583 million is dedicated to indirect actions on fusion research and development.
United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) is the UK’s national organisation responsible for the research and delivery of sustainable fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
Fusion energy has great potential to deliver safe, sustainable, low carbon energy for generations to come. It is based on the same processes that power the Sun and stars, and would form part of the world’s future energy mix. Achieving this is a major technical challenge that involves working at the forefront of science, engineering, and technology.
UKAEA's fusion machines include MAST-Upgrade (Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak) and the JET (Joint European Torus) research facility. JET's operations were funded by the UK Government from 2021 until 31st December 2023. UKAEA is delivering the transition of JET from plasma operations to repurposing and decommissioning, on behalf of the UK Government. The insights gained from this process will contribute to the advancement of sustainable future fusion powerplants.
UKAEA is implementing the UK’s £650 million Fusion Futures Programme, the UK's alternative programme to associating to Euratom R&T, to support the UK Fusion Strategy. The Programme entails establishing new facilities at UKAEA’s Culham Campus in Oxfordshire to facilitate the advancement of new technologies and expand fusion fuel cycle capabilities. The Programme aims to foster world-leading innovation while also stimulating general industry capacity through international collaboration and the development of future fusion powerplants. Additionally, a fusion skills package will be introduced focusing on nurturing expertise across a spectrum of disciplines and levels. In 2021, UKAEA opened its Fusion Technology Facility near Rotherham in South Yorkshire, to develop and test materials and components for future fusion powerplants.
UKAEA also undertakes cutting edge work with academia, other research organisations and the industrial supply chain in a wide spectrum of areas, including robotics and materials.
