Witty piece from CCFE on April Fool's Day
10 Apr 2017
JET's famous white buildings will soon be getting a new look as part of the European fusion experiment's preparations for its international successor, ITER.
An ITER-like facade to go along with the ITER-like wall—it is hoped the revamp will be complete by April Fool's Day 2018.
Bosses at the JET facility have decided to replace the white cladding on the exterior of the buildings with mirrored stainless steel to match the material being used at the ITER complex at Cadarache in southern France.
The JET machine itself, as the world's largest magnetic fusion experiment, is being used as a test device to help pave the way for ITER — the first fusion project designed to produce industrial-scale quantities of fusion power. Between 2009 and 2011 the interior of JET was replaced with a new 'ITER-like wall' of beryllium and tungsten to get as close to ITER scientific conditions as possible.
It is now hoped that replicating the exterior of the ITER buildings at JET will encourage scientists and engineers at Culham to intensify their work to support ITER.
The full article was published on the website of the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE) on 1 April 2017.