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Japan’s JT-60SA Tokamak Restarts After Two-Year Upgrade with Carbon Wall

6/8/2026

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Summary

JT-60SA Restarts

Japan’s JT-60SA tokamak restarted after a two-year rebuild that added a carbon-based first wall, divertor and diagnostics.
QST hand-wound two 8-meter in-vessel control coils inside the vacuum vessel to about two-millimeter tolerance.
European partners provided carbon-armor diagnostics, cryopumps and extra heating systems to achieve hotter plasmas.
Engineers will run the magnets at minus 269 °C while a six-month campaign with over 150 proposals starts late 2026.

Summary

AI Accelerates Fusion

AI and high-performance computing will accelerate plasma simulations, narrowing the gap between start-up and full-scale experiments.
AI-driven forecasts that eliminate redundant shots could reclaim many machine-hours because each operational day costs money.
The system aims to detect plasma instabilities early enough to prevent run aborts.
EUROfusion and ITER scientists will work on-site in Naka using AI tools to pursue long-pulse, steady-state plasmas for future power plants.

Summary

JT-60SA Leads Fusion

JT-60SA is the largest operating tokamak and the only source of high-temperature plasma experiments before ITER starts in the 2030s.
Built under the Japan-Europe Broader Approach pact to supply ITER and DEMO data, the facility lacks turbines or grid connection, so it will not generate electricity.
Britain’s Hinkley Point C will deliver grid power in the 2030s, while AI-data-center demand spurs a US-Israeli barge-mounted fusion reactor planned for the same period.

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JT-60SA Restarts

Japan’s JT-60SA tokamak restarted after a two-year rebuild that added a carbon-based first wall, divertor and diagnostics.
QST hand-wound two 8-meter in-vessel control coils inside the vacuum vessel to about two-millimeter tolerance.
European partners provided carbon-armor diagnostics, cryopumps and extra heating systems to achieve hotter plasmas.
Engineers will run the magnets at minus 269 °C while a six-month campaign with over 150 proposals starts late 2026.

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