Pumping Systems

“What comes to your mind if you hear someone say: ‘The Shut-Down is over: they restarted the pumping today!’? Perhaps you think of a water circulation pump like the one at home in the central heating system, an oil impeller like the one in your car, or maybe a vacuum pump similar to the roughing pumps you used in project work at university. Actually the pumping referred to is the set of large turbopumps mounted on the torus that produce the ultra-high vacuum needed for the tokamak to operate, but of course JET includes a wide variety of pumps in its plant, many of them of colossal capacity compared to those more familiar examples.”
Tom Todd, Chief Engineer

A newcomer to JET can get easily confused when pumping systems are discussed. Indeed, there are two large and completely different pumping systems, both quite impressive and deserving respect for their technology and performance: the cooling system of the JET machine (fluid pumping), and its vacuum system (gas pumping).