The large facilities dedicated to magnetic confinement fusion are currently toroidal machines, which can be grouped into two categories according to the origin of the poloidal magnetic field, i.e. the field whose lines turn around the torus:
- tokamaks, where the plasma features a several mega-amperes current along the central axis of the torus to generate the poloidal magnetic field
- stellerators, where coils fed with a strong current and distributed along the torus generate the poloidal field
Laboratories
Many facilities exist around the world with a large variety of characteristics in terms of size, type of confinement coils (superconducting or not), types of additional heating, …
In France
Institut de Recherche sur la Fusion par confinement Magnétique – IRFM : tokamak West (called Tore-Supra before 2015)
ITER (“The way” in Latin) International Organisation – ITER-IO : tokamak ITER under construction with first plasma planned in 2026
In Europe
Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (UK) : tokamak Joint European Torus (JET)
Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, UK Atomic Energy Authority (UK) : tokamak MAST Upgrade
Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics – Garching (Allemagne) : tokamak ASDEX Upgrade
Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics – Greifswald (Allemagne) : stellerator Wendelstein 7-X
Swiss Plasma Center, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne – Lausanne (Suisse) : tokamak TCV
In the world
General Atomics – San Diego (USA) : tokamak DIII-D
Plasma Science and Fusion Center – MIT (USA) : tokamak Alcator C-Mod
Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute – (Japon) : tokamak JT-60
National Institute for Fusion Science NIFS – (Japon) : heliotron LHD
Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences – Hefei (Chine) : tokamak EAST
Korea Institute of Fusion Energy – (Corée) : tokamak KSTAR