A 40-year-old nuclear fusion site has ended a major campaign but said its operations will continue until the end of the year.
The JET fusion laboratory at Culham Science Centre in Abingdon ended its most recent deuterium-tritium campaign on Saturday, October 14.
Deuterium–tritium is a type of nuclear fusion and JET has said it specialises in this field.
The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) based at Culham Science Centre carries out fusion energy research on behalf of the government.
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A spokesman for the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) said: “While this campaign was very important to advance the field, JET’s operations will continue until the end of 2023, when it will transition into the JET repurposing and decommissioning programme.
“Over the past 15 months, UKAEA has undertaken significant work to retain all employees currently working on JET, as well as the unique knowledge within this team, to benefit our wide range of other programmes.
“This included a retraining fund to support employees gaining new skills.
“JET’s operations over the past 40 years have underpinned UKAEA’s strategic mission of making fusion more sustainable, along with maximising scientific and economic benefits.
“This will continue into the future, both through the continuing analysis of the data gathered throughout the recent plasma campaigns, as well as the cutting-edge science and engineering which will be undertaken during the repurposing and decommissioning programme over the next decade and more.
“The importance of fusion to the UK was again underlined today with the publication of the government’s Fusion Futures strategy including an additional £650 million of investment.
"This will help to deliver thousands of training and job opportunities and strengthen the UK’s position as a leader in the development of fusion energy.”
In 1983, The UK and the Europeans made the choice to team up and from this partnership the Joint European Torus (JET) site was born.
Scientists were called in from across the continent to the project in Culham, including Professor Barry Green, an Australian working on plasma physics in Germany who oversaw the design and construction of the site.
For the next 40 years, the European programme took on the challenge of creating nuclear fusion and producing endless clean energy.
County councillor for Abingdon North Nathan Ley said: “While the sentimental part of me is saddened by this milestone, I'm still very optimistic about the other fusion work at Culham, all of which future generations will be thankful for.
“In addition, other work in the fields of fuel research, robotics and many others continues apace.
"I'm proud to represent people and live in an area at the forefront of scientific and technological progress, and that aspect of our identity is going to end any time soon"
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This story was written by Matthew Norman, he joined the team in 2022 as a Facebook community reporter.
Matthew covers Bicester and focuses on finding stories from diverse communities.
Get in touch with him by emailing: Matthew.norman@newsquest.co.uk
Follow him on Twitter: @OxMailMattN1
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