The National Fusion Laboratory is a department of CIEMAT, where it began its activities in 1998. The research carried out in the laboratory is divided into two large groups:
the study of plasmas confined to high temperatures, and
Research and development of technologies and materials needed to build and operate the fusion reactors of the future.
The main installation of this laboratory is the TJ-II, a stellarator-type magnetic confinement device. This fusion reactor has a toroidal shape, with a radius less than 0.2 m, a radius greater than 1.5 m and a magnetic field of 1 Tesla. Because of its size, it is a medium stellarator.
Inside, very high temperatures are achieved by applying 800 kW of radio frequency (53 GHz) and 1.6 MW of neutral hydrogen injection accelerated to 49 keV.
It has 92 access windows that allow you to install the measurement systems of the different experiments that are carried out.
In addition, the laboratory has instrumentation for the modification by radiation of materials and facilities for the characterization of the chemical, physical and mechanical properties of materials with a view to their use in nuclear fusion processes.
