In a series of experiments using the fuel mixture Deuterium-Tritium, a number of spectaculat "shots" have been done in 1997 at JET. The discharge shown burned for two seconds and yielded, in its 'most intense' second, 16 Megawatts fusion power.

62 per cent of the energy used for plasma heating was re-gained by the fusion reaction ("Q-factor" 0.62) - practically the physical proof of the functioning of the concept.

The product of temperature, density and confinement time is an important criterium of fusion physics. In order to reach reactor conditions, it has yet to be improved by a factor of about 6. When compared with the progress of the past decades, this seems to be a rather small (though expensive) step.