162 articles
Inertial confinement fusion
Inertial confinement fusion (ICF), also called laser fusion, compresses small fuel capsules with intense driver energy so the fuel fuses briefly; the NIF first achieved ignition in 2022.
Inertial electrostatic confinement
Inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC), developed by Philo Farnsworth and Robert Hirsch in the 1960s, is a fusion scheme using electrostatic potential wells, used mainly as a compact neutron source.
IR-T1
IR-T1 (Iran-Tokamak 1) is a small experimental tokamak at Islamic Azad University in Tehran, Iran, obtained from China in 1994 and used for diagnostic development and MHD instability studies.
Island divertor
The island divertor is a plasma exhaust concept for stellarators, proposed by Lyman Spitzer, in which magnetic islands at the plasma edge guide escaping particles and heat to target plates, demonstrated on Wendelstein 7-X.
Isotope separation system
An isotope separation system is part of a fusion reactor's tritium plant that separates deuterium from tritium so recovered fuel can be recycled, typically by cryogenic distillation.
ISTTOK
ISTTOK (Instituto Superior Técnico TOKamak) is a small research tokamak in Lisbon, Portugal, operating since 1990 as the country's only fusion device and known for alternating plasma current discharges.
ISX-B
ISX-B was an iron-core tokamak at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, rebuilt from ISX-A in 1978 to study how much plasma pressure, called beta, a tokamak could hold.
ITER blanket
The ITER blanket is the system of modular panels lining the ITER vacuum vessel that absorbs heat and neutrons from the plasma and shields the vessel and magnets.
ITER divertor
The ITER divertor is the component at the bottom of the ITER tokamak's vacuum vessel that removes heat and helium ash from the plasma and shields surrounding walls, sustaining heat loads of 10 MW/m².
ITER-like wall
The ITER-like wall (ILW) is the beryllium and tungsten plasma-facing first wall of the JET tokamak at Culham, UK, matching ITER's materials. Installed in 2011, it replaced JET's carbon wall.
J-TEXT
J-TEXT, or Joint Texas Experimental Tokamak, is a medium-sized iron-core tokamak at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China, with first plasma in 2007.
Joint European Torus
The Joint European Torus (JET) is a tokamak fusion research facility at Culham, Oxfordshire, which set a record 69 megajoules of fusion energy before its final plasma in 2023.
JT-60
JT-60 is a series of large Japanese tokamak fusion research devices at Naka, Ibaraki Prefecture, operating since 1985, whose successor JT-60SA is the world's largest operating tokamak.
JT-60SA
JT-60SA, meaning JT-60 Super Advanced, is a fully superconducting tokamak in Naka, Japan, jointly built by Japan and Europe to complement ITER, achieving first plasma in 2023.
KSTAR
KSTAR (Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research) is a superconducting tokamak in Daejeon, South Korea, that reached first plasma in 2008 to develop long-pulse fusion operation for ITER.
KTX (tokamak)
KTX (Keda Torus for eXperiment; 科大一环) is a reversed field pinch fusion experiment at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, Asia's largest, completed in 2015.
Large Helical Device
The Large Helical Device (LHD; 大型ヘリカル装置) was a superconducting stellarator fusion experiment in Toki, Japan, operating from 1998 to 2025 and achieving plasma temperatures of 120 million degrees.
Laser Mégajoule
Laser Mégajoule (LMJ) is France's large inertial confinement fusion laser facility at CEA Cesta near Bordeaux, inaugurated in 2014 to help certify the nuclear deterrent without underground testing.
LFEX
LFEX (Laser for Fast Ignition Experiment) is a four-beam petawatt laser at Osaka University's Institute of Laser Engineering, built as the heating laser for the FIREX fast-ignition fusion project.
Lithium ceramic pebbles
Lithium ceramic pebbles are millimeter-sized granules of lithium ceramics, mainly lithium orthosilicate and lithium metatitanate, that breed tritium fuel when struck by fusion neutrons in reactor blankets.
Lithium vapor box divertor
The lithium vapor box divertor is a proposed fusion power-exhaust concept, proposed at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in 2015, using dense lithium vapor to cool and detach the tokamak divertor plasma.
Lithium-lead eutectic
The lithium-lead eutectic, written Pb-17Li or Pb-16Li, is a liquid lead-lithium alloy with a melting point of about 235 °C used as a tritium breeder in fusion reactors.
Lower hybrid current drive
Lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) is a technique that launches radio-frequency waves, typically 1–8 GHz, into tokamak plasma to drive non-inductive current via Landau damping, enabling steady-state operation.
LULI laser facility
LULI (Laboratoire pour l'utilization des lasers intenses) is a French laser-plasma laboratory at École Polytechnique in Palaiseau, a CNRS user facility for inertial confinement fusion research.
Madison Symmetric Torus
The Madison Symmetric Torus (MST) is a toroidal magnetic confinement experiment at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, operating mainly as a reversed field pinch since 1988.
MagLIF
MagLIF (Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion) is a magneto-inertial fusion concept pursued at Sandia's Z machine since 2013, using magnetized, laser-preheated fuel in an imploding liner.
Magnetized target fusion
Magnetized target fusion (MTF), also called magneto-inertial fusion, is a fusion approach that compresses a magnetized plasma with an imploding liner, needing far slower implosions than inertial confinement fusion.
MAST Upgrade
MAST Upgrade is the United Kingdom's flagship spherical tokamak fusion experiment at Culham, Oxfordshire, which began operating in October 2020 and tests the Super-X divertor exhaust system.
Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak
The Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak (MAST) is a spherical tokamak at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in England, whose reengineered successor, MAST Upgrade, began operation in 2020.
Mirror Fusion Test Facility
The Mirror Fusion Test Facility (MFTF-B) was a large tandem-mirror fusion experiment at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, completed in 1986 at a cost of $372 million and mothballed without ever running a plasma.