It was an amazing experience. Creating a design is one thing, but actually putting it into action is another.
Professor Barry Green recalls the day in June 1983 when the JET fusion laboratory situated in Oxford conducted its first experiment.
Over the course of the following 40 years, the European project explored the possibilities of nuclear fusion with the hope of unlocking an abundance of clean energy.
Come Saturday, the ultimate triumphant reactor is set to conclude its final trial.
Nuclear fusion was recognized in the 1920s and the following years were devoted to researching and manufacturing fusion for nuclear arms.
In 1958, the United States' war research on fusion being declassified set off a race amongst Russia, the United Kingdom, Europe, Japan, and the US to develop fusion reactions for energy provision.
Fusion is regarded as the epitome of energy generation, as it yields a huge amount of energy while producing no greenhouse gases.
The process that energizes the Sun and other stars involves taking two atoms of a lightweight element and forcing them together - which is the antithesis of nuclear fission, where atoms of a heavy element are divided.
Upon agreeing on a partnership, the Joint European Torus (JET) site was set up at the Culham location in Oxfordshire. Scientists from different parts of Europe, including Professor Green, were invited to join the project.
An Australian who was working on plasma physics in Germany was chosen to be the lead engineer at the site, taking charge of its design and construction. The chosen model was a tokamak, which uses magnetic fields to contain the plasma - a hot, ionised gas - in a chamber. The plasma allows lighter elements to be fused in order to generate energy.
The design was significant in that it was made to operate with a combination of deuterium and tritium - two radioactive isotopes of hydrogen - instead of just one, and this has been determined to be the most efficient reaction for fusion reactors.
The historic first experiment using this fuel mix was performed at JET in 1991. Subsequent experiments have realized higher energy output, and the facility holds the current global record of delivering 59 megajoules (MJ) over a five-second time frame.
Despite its impressive record, the JET site encountered significant challenges and delays, with experiments taking a hiatus of nearly a decade during the mid-2000s as the internal structure was revamped, according to Fernanda Rimini, JET Senior Exploitation Manager.
The dream of creating enough energy to power households is still far from reality - with 59 MJ of energy, it is enough to just boil 60 kettles of water.
Joelle Mailloux is the head of the JET science programme, who is responsible for the concluding round of deuterium-tritium experiments which take place on Saturday.
She states that they are emphasizing tackling the difficulties of stabilizing the plasma, diversifying the energy distribution, and examining ways of fortifying the reactor's components to endure the conditions.
Once the experiments conclude, scientists will still have much to glean from JET.
Ms Rimini noted that the decommissioning process will review the alterations in the [reactor] materials to better preserve other fusion locations.
One of the sites to benefit from JET's research will be the new Iter reactor in southern France. This is the world's largest fusion project and it involves a consortium of a number of countries that includes the EU, Russia, the US, and China. However, recently, the UK government declared that the UK would not be contributing to the project.
The British government declared that, in accordance with the desires of the UK fusion industry, a domestic fusion power strategy will be adopted instead of affiliation to the Euratom programme of the European Union.
The UK government has promised to invest £650m into a UK fusion energy programme from now up to 2027, including constructing a prototype fusion energy plant in Nottinghamshire referred to as STEP.
Paul Methven, the STEP programme director at the UK Atomic Energy Agency, stated to the BBC that ambitiousness and realism ought to both be combined while undertaking endeavours akin to this.
We are striving to have our first operations commenced by the early 2040s.
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