JT-60SA Completes Major Upgrades — Integrated Commissioning Begins for Restart

On May 15, 2026, ANS Nuclear Newswire and Fusion for Energy announced that JT-60SA — the world's largest operational superconducting tokamak — has completed a comprehensive post-first-plasma upgrade programme and is ready to resume experiments, with integrated commissioning underway. Located at the National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (QST) in Naka, Japan, JT-60SA is a joint Europe–Japan project under the Broader Approach agreement. Upgrades include: a new carbon-based first wall and divertor replacing components damaged during the initial 2023 campaign; 8-meter in-vessel coils wound directly inside the machine to enable high-speed plasma position control (critical for disruption avoidance); additional NBI and ECRH heating systems boosting total input power capacity; new European cryopumps; and advanced diagnostic systems. Jerónimo García took over as project leader on May 14, 2026. Plasma heating experiments are planned for late 2026, with over 150 scientific proposals under review from teams across 24 EU member states and Japan. JT-60SA is designed to sustain high-performance plasmas for up to 100 seconds and serves as a critical experimental platform for informing ITER operations and future DEMO reactor design.