Giant lasers pass new milestone towards fusion energy

Giant lasers pass new milestone towards fusion energy

Physics World 18 Jun 2018 Early stages: laser preamplifiers at the National Ignition Facility. (Courtesy: CC BY-SA 3.0/Damien Jemison/LLNL) Physicists working at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in the US say they have passed another important milestone in their quest for nuclear fusion energy. They have shown that the fusion energy generated by the laser … Read more

Ahmedabad to host IAEA’s fusion meet

Ahmedabad to host IAEA’s fusion meet

Times of India Jun 15, 2018 Ahmedabad: India will host the world’s largest International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) fusion energy conference (FEC) at the Institute of Plasma Research (IPR) in Bhat in Ahmedabad. The five-day event will begin from October 22. Preparations for the event is in full swing with scientific papers being called for … Read more

David’s story

David’s story

IOP My future goal is to do whatever I can to get electricity on the grid by fusion power. Coming from a long-line of engineers my family were surprised that I desperately wanted to work in physics. After completing a degree in Engineering Physics I started my career at the University of Oxford as a … Read more

Oxford academics recognised in Queen’s Birthday Honours

Oxford academics recognised in Queen’s Birthday Honours

Oxford University 8 Jun 2018 The pioneering work of members of the University has been recognised in The Queen’s Birthday Honours List. Professor Angela Ruth McLean, FRS, Professor of Mathematical Biology at the University of Oxford, is appointed DBE for services to mathematical biology and to scientific advice for government. She said: “I am delighted … Read more

New model sheds light on key physics of magnetic islands that halt fusion reactions

New model sheds light on key physics of magnetic islands that halt fusion reactions

PPPL June 6, 2018 KSTAR physicist Jae-Min Kwon, left, and PPPL physicist C.S. Chang. (Photos by National Fusion Research Institute, left, and Elle Starkman.) Magnetic islands, bubble-like structures that form in fusion plasmas, can grow and disrupt the plasmas and damage the doughnut-shaped tokamak facilities that house fusion reactions. Recent research at the U.S. Department … Read more

Small UK company gets one step closer to nuclear fusion breakthrough as it heats plasma to hotter than the sun

Small UK company gets one step closer to nuclear fusion breakthrough as it heats plasma to hotter than the sun

City AM 6 June 2018 The tokamak device is how Tokamak Energy heats plasma for nuclear fusion (Source: Tokamak Energy) A small UK company which is aiming to revolutionise power generation through cracking nuclear fusion has today come one step closer. Oxford-based Tokamak Energy, which is backed by hedge fund Winton Group, has managed to … Read more

ST40 achieves 15-million-degree target

ST40 achieves 15-million-degree target

WNN 06 June 2018 Tokamak Energy announced today that it has achieved plasma temperatures of over 15 million degrees Celsius, hotter than the centre of the Sun. The Oxford, England-based company turned on its ST40 reactor for the first time in April 2017. The reactor aims to produce a record-breaking plasma temperature for a privately-funded … Read more

Seeing all the colors of the plasma wind

Seeing all the colors of the plasma wind

Phys.org June 4, 2018, US Department of Energy Credit: US Department of Energy When it comes to plasma winds in a tokamak, researchers are always looking for the Goldilocks solution—one that is just right. Winds that are too high or too low can reduce plasma efficiency. Researchers at the DIII-D National Fusion Center are using … Read more