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Fusion Reactor Engineering Lab
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A lab at the National Institute for Fusion Science that studies plasma heating and reactor materials for fusion power generation.
AboutAbout the lab
Heating and materials research essential to fusion power
The Tanaka-Nakano Lab studies the heating devices and reactor materials essential to realizing fusion power generation.
The lab is located inside the National Institute for Fusion Science in Toki, Gifu Prefecture.
One pillar is research on heating systems for creating and controlling high-temperature, high-density plasma.
The other is the development of materials and equipment for the 'blanket', which converts the energy of neutrons produced by fusion into heat to generate electricity.
Key terms
- Plasma
- A state in which a gas is heated to a very high temperature so that its atoms separate into electrons and ions. Fusion takes place in this state
- Blanket
- The part of a fusion reactor that surrounds the plasma. It absorbs the neutrons flying out and extracts their energy as heat
- Negative ion source
- A device that produces hydrogen with an extra electron (negative ions) and extracts it as a beam
NewsLab news
View More ↗ResearchResearch themes
The National Institute for Fusion Science, where the lab is located, aims to establish the advanced engineering technologies needed for a fusion power reactor. The lab's research rests on two pillars: systems that heat high-temperature, high-density plasma, and the materials and equipment needed for blankets used in power generation.
*Illustrative imageBeam devices that heat plasma
A neutral beam injector heats plasma with a beam produced from a hydrogen negative ion source. The lab is building a negative ion source that can operate with two discharge methods in a single unit, and is researching how to reduce beam divergence, in joint work with the ITER Organization and the National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (QST), among others.
*Illustrative imageElectrical insulating materials that withstand neutron irradiation
For liquid-metal-cooled blankets, one proposal is to apply a ceramic electrical insulating coating to the inner surface of the pipes. Using experiments in which ion beams are directed at the material, the lab examines how insulation performance changes under continuous neutron irradiation inside a reactor, and selects radiation-resistant materials.
*Illustrative imageMonitoring conditions inside the reactor with light
Erbium oxide emits green and red light when irradiated with ultraviolet light, and the intensity ratio between the two changes with crystal disorder and temperature. Using this property, the lab is developing a monitoring system that measures the degree of damage and the temperature of materials inside a fusion reactor.
MembersFaculty
Members of the Tanaka-Nakano Lab are doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- Visiting ProfessorTeruya Tanaka
- Visiting Associate ProfessorHaruhisa Nakano
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Baseball II magnetic mirror” Uknown LLNL photographer / Public domain (cropped)
- Beam devices that heat plasma: “Particle accelerator DSC09089” David Monniaux / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Electrical insulating materials that withstand neutron irradiation: “Plasma spray ceramic coating on aluminium tube” Optimi3e / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Monitoring conditions inside the reactor with light: “Luminescence of various kinds of uranium glass” Łukasz Karolewski / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (量子線写像工学研究グループ): “Radiacode 102” Mykhal / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (エネルギー電磁流体工学研究グループ): “Large Helical Device 2014” National Institute for Fusion Science / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (核融合プラズマ理工学研究グループ): “U.S. Department of Energy - Science - )” U.S. Department of Energy from United States / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (原子核計測工学研究グループ): “Experiment using an electronic neutron generator” Idaho National Laboratory / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
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