• Question: What would happen if you went inside the JET machine

    Asked by Jo Wilson to Stevie on 9 Nov 2015. This question was also asked by Fraser.j.Robertson.
    • Photo: Steven Wray

      Steven Wray answered on 9 Nov 2015:

      In short you would get a small radiation dose and if you didn’t have any breathing apparatus you may inhale some beryllium. We do sometimes send people into JET but only when our remote manipulator (MASCOT) isn’t available or isn’t able to do a particular job!

      This is all when the machine is off. It is was on then you might get melted by microwaves or our neutral particle beam! But don’t worry, they are lots of safety systems that stop anyone being even near the machine when those systems are turned on.

      The radiation in JET comes from the neutrons produced by fusion reactions activating the internal parts. This means these parts are radioactive with short half lives, so if we wait a few more years the radiation hazard will be gone.
      The beryllium comes from our plasma facing tiles which are coated in beryllium as it’s the lightest metal available.

Comments