Tungsten, represented unexpectedly by the letter W on the periodic table of elements (for wolframite, an ore where tungsten is often found), is proving to be quite the wonder material for fusion reactors. In April 2024 , the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy announced that its KSTAR fusion reactor successfully sustained plasma at 100 million degrees Celsius thanks in large part to its Tungsten divertor (basically a tokamak exhaust port). The reactor, based in Provence, France, is called the Tungsten (W) Environment in Steady-state Tokamak (WEST), and it’s the successor of the Tore Supra that sported an interior of graphite tiles. In 2023, ITER decided to switch the material of the reactor’s inner wall from beryllium to, you guessed it, tungsten. ITER’s fusion neighbor, WEST, will hopefully have lots of Tungsten data to provide once ITER is fully operational.