World’s Biggest Experimental Nuclear Fusion Reactor JT-60SA Inaugurated in Japan

Current Context: On 1st December The world’s largest and most advanced nuclear fusion reactor, JT-60SA, has officially started its operations in Japan’s Ibaraki Prefecture.

• This is a joint initiative between the European Union and Japan.
• Unlike traditional nuclear fission used in power plants, which splits atomic nuclei, fusion mimics the sun’s energy production by merging two nuclei, potentially offering a safer and more abundant energy source.
• The JT-60SA reactor aims to investigate the feasibility of fusion as a safe, large-scale, and carbon-free source of net energy – with more energy generated than is put into producing it.
• The six-story-high machine, in a hangar in Naka, north of Tokyo, comprises a doughnut-shaped “tokamak” vessel set to contain swirling plasma heated to 200 million degrees Celsius.
• It is the forerunner for its big brother in France, the under-construction International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).
• The ultimate aim of both projects is to coax hydrogen nuclei inside to fuse into one heavier element, helium, releasing energy in the form of light and heat, and mimicking the process that takes place inside the sun.

Question:

Q.1 Where is the JT-60SA nuclear fusion reactor located?
a. Tokyo
b. Ibaraki Prefecture
c. Fukushima
d. Osaka