This paper reports the first experiment carried out in deuterium–tritium addressing the integration of a radiative divertor for heat-load control with good confinement. Neon seeding was carried out for the first time in a D–T plasma as part of the second D–T campaign of JET with its Be/W wall environment. The technical difficulties linked to the re-ionisation heat load are reported in T and D–T. This paper compares the impact of neon seeding on D–T plasmas and their D counterpart on the divertor detachment, localisation of the radiation, scrape-off profiles, pedestal structure, edge localised modes and global confinement.