When the density of the hot, ionized gas (known as a plasma) in a tokamak exceeds a certain limit, it usually leads to a rapid loss of heat and plasma currents. The currents are required to confine the plasma. Such events ...
Plasma Physics
Aug 21, 2018
0
11
The challenge of fusion energy is often equated to capturing—and holding—lightning in a bottle. The analogy is apt. Lightning and a fusion energy plasma have a lot in common. Similarities include very high temperatures, ...
Plasma Physics
May 3, 2018
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20
One of the greatest obstacles to producing energy via fusion on Earth is the formation and growth of small magnetic field imperfections in the core of experimental fusion reactors. These reactors, called tokamaks, confine ...
Plasma Physics
May 3, 2018
1
132
Birds do it and so do doughnut-shaped fusion facilities called "tokamaks." But tokamak chirping— a rapidly changing frequency wave that can be far above what the human ear can detect—is hardly welcome to researchers who ...
Plasma Physics
Mar 16, 2018
0
81
A key challenge in fusion research is maintaining the stability of the hot, charged plasma that fuels fusion reactions inside doughnut-shaped facilities called "tokamaks." Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) ...
Plasma Physics
Mar 14, 2018
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8
A persistent problem has dogged the largest fusion device in South Korea. The Korean Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) device has run successfully since 2008. However, controlling the vertical position of ...
Plasma Physics
Jan 17, 2018
1
21
Researchers led by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have proposed an innovative design to improve the ability of future fusion power plants to generate safe, clean and abundant ...
Plasma Physics
Oct 17, 2017
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12
A major issue facing ITER, the international tokamak under construction in France that will be the first magnetic fusion device to produce net energy, is whether the crucial divertor plates that will exhaust waste heat from ...
Plasma Physics
Sep 26, 2017
22
562
Physicist Fatima Ebrahimi at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) has for the first time used advanced models to accurately simulate key characteristics of the cyclic behavior of ...
Plasma Physics
Aug 24, 2017
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4
Inside a fusion experiment, where scientists study the reactions at the heart of our sun, disruptions—large-scale instabilities of the plasma—cause rapid and complete loss of magnetic confinement. Models of fusion plasmas ...
Plasma Physics
Aug 21, 2017
0
10
