50 years on: The mission to Moscow that changed fusion research

Fifty years ago, five scientists from UKAEA's Culham Laboratory made a trip to the Soviet Union that was to prove a pivotal moment in the quest for fusion energy.

Their journey to Moscow’s Kurchatov Institute in 1969 confirmed the impressive results of the Soviets’ T3 experiment – a relatively new type of fusion device known as a ‘tokamak’. The Culham team measured plasma temperatures of 10 million degrees at T3; far in excess of any previous fusion machine and a big step towards the conditions needed for fusion power. The emergence of the tokamak was a huge boost for fusion research and opened the way to machines like JET, ITER and a viable route to future powerplants.

We interviewed Dr Mike Forrest, one of the members of the team, to mark the 50th anniversary of the mission.

[davidpratt]

Hey ! That's my photo of Mike Forest ! Good to know we are still active and promoting fusion.

[richardfroud]

What a great man to work for. I started at Culham in 1968 and worked for Mike and his team from D6 workshop. Great memories.

[shreysharma]

Basically USSR was researching on the cold fusion ....and developed the t-15 tokomak reactor

[arkadyserikov]

Thomson scattering plasma diagnostics - an example of very successful collaboration between the Soviet Union and western counties (UK, USA).

[trevortaylor]

It's funny what we can achieve if work together and put politics to the side!