Lezing 'Nuclear fusion: from Soviet breakthrough to ITER'

In the wake of the Second World War, several nations developed research programmes on controlled thermonuclear fusion with the aim of clean and sustainable energy production. The main technical problems to overcome were confining the fusion plasma efficiently and achieving sufficient heating for fusion reactions to happen. Different lines of research were followed, but by 1968, the USSR’s tokamak (a Russian acronym for ‘toroidal chamber with magnetic coils’) emerged as the most promising line. Mastering tokamak technology and pursuing magnetic confinement fusion quickly became major international research endeavours. The experience and knowledge accumulated over the past decades have culminated in the design of ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), the largest ever tokamak.