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.
In a comprehensive experimental study, an international team of researchers has confirmed the calculations of a leading turbulence simulation code to an unprecedented degree. This marks a major breakthrough in understanding ...
Plasma Physics
Mar 17, 2025
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A research team, led by Professor Jimin Lee and Professor Eisung Yoon in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at UNIST, has unveiled a deep learning–based approach that significantly accelerates the computation of a nonlinear ...
Plasma Physics
Feb 28, 2025
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219
High-temperature superconducting magnets made from REBCO, an acronym for rare-earth barium copper oxide, make it possible to create an intense magnetic field that can confine the extremely hot plasma needed for fusion reactions, ...
Superconductivity
Feb 28, 2025
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To develop a practical fusion power system, scientists need to fully understand how the plasma fuel interacts with its surroundings. The plasma is superheated, which means some of the atoms involved can strike the wall of ...
Plasma Physics
Feb 26, 2025
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109
1,337 seconds: that was how long WEST, a tokamak run from the CEA Cadarache site in southern France and one of the EUROfusion consortium medium size Tokamak facilities, was able to maintain a plasma for on 12 February. This ...
Plasma Physics
Feb 19, 2025
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527
Creating and sustaining fusion reactions—essentially recreating star-like conditions on Earth—is extremely difficult, and Nathan Howard, Ph.D., a principal research scientist at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC), ...
Plasma Physics
Feb 18, 2025
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127
In physics, the term "isotropy" means a system where the properties are the same in all directions. For fusion, neutron energy isotropy is an important measurement that analyzes the streams of neutrons coming from the device ...
Plasma Physics
Feb 3, 2025
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86
The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), commonly known as China's "artificial sun," has achieved a remarkable scientific milestone by maintaining steady-state high-confinement plasma operation for an impressive ...
Plasma Physics
Jan 21, 2025
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2350
In a pioneering approach to achieve fusion energy, the SMART device has successfully generated its first tokamak plasma. This step brings the international fusion community closer to achieving sustainable, clean, and virtually ...
Plasma Physics
Jan 21, 2025
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551
Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) is developing a tokamak device called SPARC. The company aims to demonstrate the critical fusion energy milestone of producing more output power than input power for the first time in a device ...
Plasma Physics
Jan 20, 2025
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