The U.S. scientific community is currently conceptualizing the first nuclear fusion power plants, which will revolutionize energy production. Like the sun and stars, a fusion power plant will produce energy by fusing light ...
Plasma Physics
Nov 8, 2021
0
357
While movies show Earth as existing in a calm, pristine corner of the universe, in reality the near-Earth space environment is dangerous and dynamic. On any given day, hot charged particles and blobs of plasma, called the ...
General Physics
Nov 8, 2021
0
918
The march towards fusion energy gain, required for commercial fusion energy, is not always visible. Progress occurs in fits and starts through experiments in national laboratories, universities, and more recently at private ...
Plasma Physics
Nov 8, 2021
3
53
The U.S. Fusion Outreach Team, a grassroots organization in the fusion community focused on reducing barriers to outreach efforts, has launched a new centralized website to engage an expanding workforce, media, educators, ...
Plasma Physics
Nov 8, 2021
0
17
In the race toward practical fusion energy, tokamaks (donut-shaped plasma devices) are the leading concept—they have achieved better confinement and higher plasma temperatures than any other configuration. Two major magnetic ...
Plasma Physics
Nov 8, 2021
0
63
Charged particle accelerators have been a central tool of basic physics research for almost a hundred years, perhaps most famously as "atom smashers" for understanding the elementary constituents of the universe. As accelerators ...
Plasma Physics
Nov 8, 2021
0
18
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and Los Alamos National Laboratory have uncovered a key process behind a major challenge called thermal quenches, the rapid heat loss ...
Plasma Physics
Nov 8, 2021
0
12
In controlled nuclear fusion, heavy isotopes of hydrogen fuse into helium, releasing a huge amount of energy in the process. A large portion of the energy released by a laboratory fusion reaction goes into hot helium ash ...
Plasma Physics
Nov 8, 2021
0
20
For decades, scientists have been working to harness clean, renewable fusion energy, which occurs naturally in stars like our sun. Using strong magnetic fields to confine hot plasmas within a donut-shaped device called a ...
Plasma Physics
Nov 8, 2021
0
6
Spacecraft have long used heat shields for protection during entry into planetary atmospheres. Future missions to the outer solar system will need more sophisticated materials than currently exist. The extreme heating conditions ...
Plasma Physics
Nov 8, 2021
0
22
