Achievement of Sustained Net Plasma Heating in a Fusion Experiment with the Optometrist Algorithm

Achievement of Sustained Net Plasma Heating in a Fusion Experiment with the Optometrist Algorithm

E. A. Baltz, E. Trask, M. Binderbauer, M. Dikovsky, H. Gota, R. Mendoza, J. C. Platt & P. F. Riley Scientific Reports 7, Article number: 6425 (2017) doi:10.1038/s41598-017-06645-7 July 25, 2017 Abstract Many fields of basic and applied science require efficiently exploring complex systems with high dimensionality. An example of such a challenge is optimising … Read more

Oscillatory vapour shielding of liquid metal walls in nuclear fusion devices

Oscillatory vapour shielding of liquid metal walls in nuclear fusion devices

Abstract Providing an efficacious plasma facing surface between the extreme plasma heat exhaust and the structural materials of nuclear fusion devices is a major challenge on the road to electricity production by fusion power plants. The performance of solid plasma facing surfaces may become critically reduced over time due to progressing damage accumulation. Liquid metals, … Read more

Nuclear Fusion Could Completely Eliminate The Need For Fossil Fuels By 2030

Nuclear Fusion Could Completely Eliminate The Need For Fossil Fuels By 2030

Hexapolis SUKANYA MUKHERJEE FEBRUARY 4, 2017 Inside MIT’s Alcator C-Mod Tokamak nuclear fusion reactor Nuclear fusion has long been hailed as a near-perfect solution to the burgeoning global energy crisis. Centered around the replication of reactions occurring in the sun, this process involves the fusion of two lightweight atoms like hydrogen at extremely high temperatures, … Read more

Former SULI student wins Fulbright award for research on W7-X

Former SULI student wins Fulbright award for research on W7-X

PPPL By Jeanne Jackson DeVoe | August 7, 2017 (Photo by Courtesy of Alexandra LeViness ) Fulbright scholar Alexandra LeViness shortly after graduating from the University of Alabama. Alexandra LeViness, a former Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) student who will join Princeton University’s graduate program in plasma physics in 2018, has won a prestigious Fulbright … Read more

NSF FELLOW TO COMBINE PLASMA MODELING WITH EXPERIMENTAL WORK USING HIDRA

NSF FELLOW TO COMBINE PLASMA MODELING WITH EXPERIMENTAL WORK USING HIDRA

NPRE Illinois Jul 17, 2017 Fresh from his year in France as a Fulbright Grantee working on the ITER project, one of the most ambitious energy projects in the world today, Matthew Parsons has been awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to support his PhD work in Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering at … Read more

Exploring lower cost pathways to economical fusion power

Exploring lower cost pathways to economical fusion power

Adjacent Open Access 04/08/17 By: Scott C. Hsu, Ph.D., Los Alamos National Laboratory Figure 1. Photo of the outer (top) and inner (bottom) electrodes of a (disassembled) coaxial plasma gun used to launch supersonic plasma jets in our fusion research. Photo courtesy of HyperV Technologies Corp. The cost of fusion energy development is a significant … Read more

Fusion-fission hybrids: nuclear shortcut or pipe dream?

Fusion-fission hybrids: nuclear shortcut or pipe dream?

power-technology.com BY CHRIS LO ON AUG 7 2017 While nuclear fusion’s key milestones remain elusive, could fusion-fission hybrid reactors represent the best of both worlds? Start-up Apollo Fusion aims to make this complex concept a commercial reality, but formidable obstacles remain. With waste and safety concerns holding back global nuclear uptake, there is increased attention … Read more

Simulations Show How Recycled Atoms Boost Plasma Turbulence

Simulations Show How Recycled Atoms Boost Plasma Turbulence

nersc AUGUST 7, 2017 Contact: Kathy Kincade, kkincade@lbl.gov, +1 510 495 2124 XGC1 Gyrokinetic Particle Code Opens New Doors in Fusion Research Plasma density fluctuation in a tokamak plasma turbulence driven by ion temperature gradient. The green line shows the magnetic separatrix surface that contains the edge plasma pedestal within a few centimeters from it. … Read more

Metal cloud to protect fusion reactor walls

Metal cloud to protect fusion reactor walls

Phys.org August 7, 2017 A thin vapour cloud in front of a liquid metal may be the solution to protecting the reactor walls of future fusion power plants to the extreme heat fluxes encountered. In Nature Communications, PhD candidate Stein van Eden and colleagues at DIFFER and Ghent University presents measurements of a vapour cloud … Read more