Plasma fusion as a research area investigates the conditions and processes required to achieve controlled thermonuclear fusion in ionized gases, focusing on confinement, stability, heating, and transport phenomena in high-temperature plasmas. It encompasses magnetic confinement (e.g., tokamaks, stellarators), inertial confinement (laser- or particle-beam driven), and alternative concepts, integrating plasma physics, nuclear physics, materials science, and advanced diagnostics. Key objectives include understanding turbulence, instabilities, and non-linear interactions that govern energy and particle confinement, optimizing reactor-relevant regimes such as H-mode, and developing predictive models to guide the design of fusion devices aimed at net energy gain and ultimately practical fusion power production.
After two decades of design, production, fabrication and assembly on three continents, the historic, multinational ITER fusion energy project today celebrates the completion and delivery of its massive toroidal field coils ...
Plasma Physics
Jul 1, 2024
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Nuclear fusion—when two nuclei combine to form a new nucleus, thereby releasing energy—may be the clean, reliable, limitless power source of the future. But first, scientists must learn how to control its production.
Plasma Physics
Jun 25, 2024
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In the realm of fusion research, the control of plasma density, temperature, and heating is crucial for enhancing reactor performance. Effective confinement of plasma particles and heat, especially maintaining high density ...
Plasma Physics
Jun 24, 2024
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Tokamaks are one of the most widely studied technologies in the global effort to achieve sustained nuclear fusion. Using intense magnetic fields, they confine superheated plasma within their doughnut-shaped interiors, allowing ...
Plasma Physics
Jun 17, 2024
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High-temperature fusion plasma experiments conducted in the Large Helical Device (LHD) of the National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS), have renewed the world record for an acquired data amount, 0.92 terabytes (TB) per ...
Plasma Physics
Jun 14, 2024
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The furious exhaust heat generated by a fusing plasma in a commercial-scale reactor may not be as damaging to the vessel's innards as once thought, according to researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton ...
Plasma Physics
Jun 11, 2024
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Fusion energy is released when two light nuclei combine to form a single heavier one (nuclear fusion reaction). Fusion energy-based power generation (fusion power plant) uses the energy generated when deuterium and tritium ...
Plasma Physics
Jun 10, 2024
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Harnessing energy from plasma requires a precise understanding of its behavior during fusion to keep it hot, dense and stable. A new theoretical model about a plasma's edge, which can become unstable and bulge, brings the ...
Plasma Physics
May 28, 2024
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A research group led by Prof. Wang Haixia from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has revealed the tritium release behavior of lithium titanate (Li2TiO3) breeder irradiated with fusion ...
Plasma Physics
May 24, 2024
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Both literally and figuratively, light pervades the world. It banishes darkness, conveys telecommunications signals between continents and makes visible the invisible, from faraway galaxies to the smallest bacterium. Light ...
Optics & Photonics
May 23, 2024
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