Number 155 (Story #2), December 13, 1993 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein PRINCETON'S TFTR TOKAMAK HAS PRODUCED 5.6 MEGAWATTS OF POWER from fusion reactions. The previous record power output for a fusion reactor was 1.7 megawatts at the Joint European Torus (JET) in 1991. The high power at Princeton (as with JET) was made possible by using tritium. Deuterium-tritium reactions result in the emission of a surplus energy of 17.6 MeV, whereas deuterium-deuterium reactions---the ones studied at Princeton until last week---release only 3.2 MeV of surplus energy. The trouble with tritium is that it is radioactive and has to be produced artificially. The short burst of fusion at TFTR lasted only about one second; furthermore, despite the high power output more energy was put into initiating the fusion than was gotten out of it. (The Washington Post, 11 Dec.)