With 192 lasers and temperatures more than three times hotter than the center of the sun, scientists hit—at least for a fraction of a second—a key milestone on the long road toward nearly pollution-free fusion energy.
Plasma Physics
Jan 26, 2022
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To create the conditions needed for fusion reactions, tokamak reactors contain a plasma in magnetic fields. These magnetic fields can contain tubular areas called magnetic islands. Plasma particles move extra quickly across ...
Plasma Physics
Jan 12, 2022
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98
Researchers working at China's tokamak facility have announced that the team was able to hold 120-million-degree Celsius plasma for 1,056 seconds. In their announcement to the press, they noted that their achievement was ...
Exotic laser-produced high-energy-density (HED) plasmas akin to those found in stars and nuclear explosions could provide insight into events throughout the universe. Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton ...
Plasma Physics
Nov 18, 2021
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365
After decades of inertial confinement fusion research, a record yield of more than 1.3 megajoules (MJ) from fusion reactions was achieved in the laboratory for the first time during an experiment at Lawrence Livermore National ...
Plasma Physics
Nov 8, 2021
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3804
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
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
A high-tech fusion facility is like a thermos—both keep their contents as hot as possible. Fusion facilities confine electrically charged gas known as plasma at temperatures 10 times hotter than the sun, and keeping it ...
Plasma Physics
Oct 20, 2021
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Physicists are like bees—they can cross-pollinate, taking ideas from one area and using them to develop breakthroughs in other areas. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory ...
Plasma Physics
Aug 20, 2021
1
765
A key challenge for scientists striving to produce on Earth the fusion energy that powers the sun and stars is preventing what are called runaway electrons, particles unleashed in disrupted fusion experiments that can bore ...
Plasma Physics
Aug 5, 2021
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