The Axially Symmetric Divertor Experiment (ASDEX) Upgrade acts as a testbed for large-scale fusion experiments such as ITER and DEMO, as it provides conditions similar to a power plant. ASDEX Upgrade is a tokamak reactor with inner walls clad in tungsten. It allows for three types of plasma heating: neutral particle injection, radio frequency heating and microwave heating. PPPL’s work on ASDEX Upgrade is done in collaboration with researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching, Germany, where the device is housed.

COMPASS-U is a medium-sized, high-magnetic field experimental tokamak built at the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Researchers at PPPL designed and are building a set of in-vessel magnetic diagnostics for this facility. Experiments on COMPASS-U will be relevant to ITER and DEMO. COMPASS-U is slated for completion in 2025.

A primary goal of the DIII–D program is to optimize the Advanced Tokamak (AT) path to the development of fusion energy. The AT path seeks to establish the ultimate potential of the tokamak as a steady state path to magnetic fusion. PPPL plays a major role in the DIII-D program by contributing in areas of unique institutional capability in experimentation, fusion theory, engineering and facility operations. PPPL's work on DIID-D is done in collaboration with General Atomics in San Diego, California, where the device is located.

The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) is a large superconducting long-pulse tokamak in Hefei, China. The Institute of Plasma Physics is conducting the experiment for the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It has been operating since 2006 and is equipped with ITER-relevant auxiliary heating and current-drive systems.

The ITER project is being designed and built by seven partners: China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, the Russian Federation, and the United States. The ITER Agreement, signed November 21, 2006, and in force October 24, 2007, established a membership duration of 35 years for the participating partners. The Members have divided the scope and are strongly mutually dependent, sharing the work and the benefits. U.S. participation in the ITER Agreement is essential to ITER’s success.

PPPL is designing and building diagnostic equipment and developing scientific data and software coding for the international facility.

JT-60SA is a tokamak in Naka, Japan. Completed in 2020, JT-60SA is part of the international “Broader Approach Agreement” that aims to complement the ITER project and accelerate the realization of fusion energy. Jointly built and operated by Japan and Europe, this tokamak will address key physics and engineering issues, including support for preparing ITER operations and optimizing fusion power plants built after ITER.

PPPL, a world leader in designing and constructing diagnostic equipment, is developing an X-ray imaging crystal spectrometer for the JT-60SA tokamak. The device will record the intensity of X-ray emissions in the JT-60SA plasma and inform operators of plasma temperature and the velocity of plasma rotation. These conditions will exceed 100 million degrees Celsius in the core and up to 500 kilometers per second in high-confinement plasma scenarios.

The KSTAR (or Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research; Korean: 초전도 핵융합연구장치, literally "superconducting nuclear fusion research device") is a magnetic fusion device at the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy in Daejeon, South Korea. It is intended to study aspects of magnetic fusion energy that will be pertinent to the ITER fusion project as part of that country's contribution to the ITER effort. The project was approved in 1995, but construction was delayed by the East Asian financial crisis, which weakened the South Korean economy considerably; however, the project's construction phase was completed on September 14, 2007. The first plasma was achieved in June 2008.

Experiments on this recently upgraded small tokamak coat the plasma-facing walls of the device with liquid lithium to test the ability of the coating to maintain plasma heat and protect the walls of the facility.

The Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak-Upgrade (MAST-U) fusion device is located at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in the U.K. Teams of PPPL researchers use MAST-U to study key physics issues of plasma fusion in spherical tokamaks, such as plasma confinement, stability and exhaust. MAST-U completed its first experimental campaign in 2021.

This is the primary fusion experiment at PPPL. The spherical device is shaped more like a cored apple than the doughnut-like shape of conventional tokamaks and can produce high-pressure plasmas — essential ingredients for fusion reactions — with relatively low and cost-effective magnetic fields.

The SMall Aspect Ratio Tokamak (SMART) is a spherical tokamak under construction at the University of Seville, Spain. A key PPPL objective at SMART is exploring plasma confinement in an innovative configuration known as negative triangularity to see if it could be used to better stabilize plasmas under the conditions necessary for power generation.

SPARC is a collaborative effort between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Plasma Science & Fusion Center and the private fusion startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS). Once complete, the compact, high-field, net fusion energy device will be the size of existing midsized fusion devices but with a much stronger magnetic field. The device is targeted for completion in 2025. PPPL physicists participate in the project through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Innovation Network for Fusion Energy program as well as through modeling calculations of the divertor heat flux relevant to compact machines.

Run by the private U.K. company Tokamak Energy, ST40 has already achieved temperatures upward of the 100 million degrees Celsius necessary for commercial fusion energy production. The spherical tokamak uses PPPL’s TRANSP software and is also home to many experiments conducted in collaboration with PPPL research, including investigations into plasma instabilities.

Developed at PPPL, TRANSP is computer code that simulates a tokamak fueled by the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium. It has long been considered the world standard for predicting and analyzing fusion experiments and is essential to the development of ITER and other tokamaks. PPPL continues to enhance TRANSP and support users around the world.

The W Environment in Steady-State Tokamak (WEST) is operated by the French Alternatives Energies and Atomic Energy Commission. Designed to support the development of ITER, WEST features a first wall and divertor configuration with a full tungsten environment and superconducting magnets. PPPL collaborates on this device, with diagnostics and actuators developed by PPPL, including an impurity powder dropper. Mounted in the top of the tokamak, the dropper offers a way to coat the inside of the vacuum vessel to reduce plasma impurity radiation without turning off the tokamak.