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.
Zap Energy has advanced its Century fusion engineering test platform to operate for more than one hundred plasma shots at 0.2 Hz, or one shot every five seconds, with the resulting heat captured by surfaces coated with circulating ...
Plasma Physics
Sep 30, 2025
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494
In the universe, thermonuclear fusion is a common reaction: it is the source of energy for stars. On Earth, producing energy using this process is difficult due to problems with controlling the plasma emitting significant ...
Plasma Physics
Sep 11, 2025
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185
Durham University scientists have completed one of the largest quality verification programs ever carried out on superconducting materials, helping to ensure the success of the world's biggest fusion energy experiment ITER.
Superconductivity
Sep 11, 2025
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160
Temperatures of more than 10,000°C and a hail of charged particles from the fusion fuel (plasma): These are extreme conditions that the exhaust wall (divertor) of future fusion power plants will need to withstand. It makes ...
Plasma Physics
Sep 8, 2025
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102
The final section of what scientists and engineers say will be the largest and most powerful pulsed, superconducting magnet in the world has been completed at the Poway campus of San Diego-based General Atomics.
Plasma Physics
Aug 29, 2025
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223
Scientists pursuing magnetically-confined nuclear fusion as a clean energy source grapple with the "core-edge challenge," the need to integrate the core of the reactor, where plasma must be 10 times hotter than the sun, with ...
Plasma Physics
Aug 25, 2025
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147
Scientists at the University of California San Diego have uncovered how diamond—the material used to encase fuel for fusion experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory—can ...
Plasma Physics
Aug 20, 2025
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42
Using a small bench-top reactor, researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) have demonstrated that electrochemically loading a solid metal target with deuterium fuel can boost nuclear fusion rates.
Plasma Physics
Aug 20, 2025
3
592
Practical fusion power that can provide cheap, clean energy could be a step closer thanks to artificial intelligence. Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have developed a deep learning model that accurately ...
A public‑private partnership between Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory has led to a new artificial intelligence ...
Plasma Physics
Aug 13, 2025
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