Media gallery

In 2010 the European Commission produced a 3D interactive show on fusion energy research. This is an educational show, which stars the Fusia character. It has been shown at several shows and events, and now you can watch a non-interactive 2D version of it and learn more about fusion and the ITER project!

This film takes us on a virtual reality tour of a fusion reactor. This is a 2D version of an otherwise stereoscopic movie (3D). It has been produced by the Centre de Recherches en Physique des Plasmas, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and it was financed by the European Commission.

Update yourself on the current status of fission energy and nuclear medicine research with this video. It gives a general overview of developments on fission throughout Europe and then shows excerpts of three interviews with key players within fission research.

As the EU proceeds to investment in its fusion research programme and ITER quickly becomes reality, many business opportunities are arising for companies across Europe.

How can electricity be produced from fusion energy? This video explains how this will be achieved in future fusion power plants.

This video examines the need for sustainable energy research.

This short video clip explains the basic principles of nuclear fission and fusion.

Plasma is the fourth state of matter. Learn here how it is different from the three other states: solid, liquid and gas.

This clip explains the principle of fusion repulsion and how it can be overcome.

Fusion magnetic confinement is the principle that allows plasma to be heated to millions of degrees inside a fusion reactor. See the basic explanation of this principle here.

Fusion magnetic confinement is the principle that allows plasma to be heated to millions of degrees inside a fusion reactor. See the second part of the explanation of this principle here.

There are several types of reactions suitable for producing nuclear fusion. But only a few can be used to produce energy. Learn more about this subject here.

A tokamak is a donut shaped machine used to create plasma for use in fusion energy production. Here is an explanation of how it works.

Fusion plasma must be heated up to hundreds of millions of degrees. This short video explains how these high temperatures can be achieved.

Controlling the plasma inside the tokamak is vital.

The Fusion stellerator is a machine used to confine fusion plasma as an alternative to the tokamak.

Inertial fusion is an alternative way to achieve a fusion reaction.

The divertor is one of ITER's main components. It is located at the bottom of the vacuum vessel and it is mainly responsible for extracting Helium ash from the plasma.
For more images on the divertor and on the ITER project please check the ITER image library on the ITER website.

During 2010 and 2011 JET went through a shutdown and major upgrade. This computer generated image shows how the interior of the Vessel will look like after the work has been completed.
This image and more JET photos can be found at the EFDA JET website photo gallery.

Given the nature of the reactions which occur inside the vacuum vessel, JET's day to day maintenance must be done with the help of highly advanced remote handling systems operated at distance from the operations centre.
This image shows the system being operated by a technician.

To begin with, JET maintenance was still done directly by scientists. This changed when experiments using the deuterium-tritium reaction started.

Upper view of the JET reactor and room.

Supra-conductivity is the term used to denote electrical conductivity at very low temperatures - just a few degrees above absolute zero. At these temperatures, the conducting material offers virtually no resistance to electric current and thus enables the creation of very efficient magnetic fields. This is at the core of the plasma confinement technology necessary in a fusion reactor.

A number of technologies are used to heat the plasma up to temperatures of 10s of millions of degrees. One of them is using microwaves produced by antennas like the one in this image.

This beautiful image shows a technician maintaining TEXTOR, the tokamak at the Institute of Energy and Climate Research (IEK) in Jülich, Germany.