The Fusion Technology Program in Japan

Japanese fusion development program is being carried out as one of the national projects aming at the realization of fusion power in early 21st century. Major near term objective is to demonstrate reactor grade plasmas in tokamak confinement by JT-60. This project started in 1975, and since then a rapid progress has been made in every field of fusion research and development, supported by wide national concensus. In light of this progress and in expection of the achievement of scientific feasibility within a few years by the large tokamaks, JAEC expressed their intention in the newly revised Long-Term Program that Japan should proceed with the development of the next machine, the Fusion Experimental Reactor (FER), to achieve the self-ignition and to demonstrate the engineering feasibility of fusion reactor within this century.