The technological achievements and experience at JET

The Joint European Torus, JET, the largest and most successful Tokamak in the world, was conceived from the start as a research project with very ambitious aims and a bold approach to extrapolations of the physics and technology base as well as the international nature of its organisation. Throughout its operating life the JET team has maintained this approach and, with its innovative and flexible design, has extended its performance far beyond the initially intended boundaries thereby retaining a lead in virtually all areas of fusion research. The team has shown a willingness to venture far beyond the technology base of the time into new areas and dimensions. The paper will highlight a few examples which illustrate the approach taken in JET to work closely with industry and the European Associations to extend the technology beyond the current state of the art whilst maintaining a tight grip on the fundamental requirements of cost and time schedule. These range from large scale integrated systems as well as small scale technological breakthroughs. Large scale systems include the Active Gas Handling System for the on-line reprocessing of the tritium–deuterium fuel, the Remote Handling System which was integrated into the JET machine from the very beginning, the JET Power Supply system as well as, most importantly, the design of the JET structure itself which permitted the fast maintenance and repair of all major sub-units. Other notable advances include the Neutral Beam Injection and Radio Frequency Heating systems, the large open structure cryo-pumps and the novel cryo-transmission lines. Some of the associated technologies required major advances in the area of diagnostics, high power handling components, carbon fibre reinforced carbon materials as well as in the whole field of beryllium technology and beryllium handling. The success of JET has shown that it serves as a model for future machines both from an engineering point of view as well as in its approach to management, organisation and funding.