Materials engineering for fusion energy frequently matures along two paths simultaneously. High-heat flux facilities provide qualifications that the candidate material can survive the power it will receive, and tokamaks demonstrate the feasibility of that material in the fusion plasma environment. In newly published work from S.H. Messer and colleagues, the fusion plasma exhaust in DIII-D […]
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Tungsten Erosion Using Biased Samples Facing A Fusion Plasma
Identifying suitable materials for building a fusion power plant is a very broad challenge. In addition to managing the radiation environment across the facility, there is a unique set of requirements for anything that faces the plasma directly. For these plasma-facing wall materials, we need to know how they erode (shed material) so that we […]
Fusion Energy: great for the environment, not so good at roasting turkeys.
Long Pulse Fusion Device Performance
If you happen to hear that “fusion has evolved into an engineering challenge,” there is a lot of truth in that simplification. Our global community is expanding research projects to better address the engineering unknowns related to producing energy from a fusion device. The science and plasma physics of fusion energy remains a big part […]
Isotope Effect in Fusion Plasmas
If you put enough heating power into a confined plasma, then it will self-organize into a state of improved confinement. The amount of input power required for this transition depends on the species of plasma. It takes more power to reach this higher confinement in a proton plasma compared to a deuterium plasma. As we […]
DIII-D Highlight: Distribution of Tearing Mode Onset
As the pressure in our fusion plasma increases, the plasma develops the ability to alter the makeup of the magnetic field that contains it. Some of these alterations are helpful and actually improve containment (see bootstrap current). Other alterations are not so helpful, and that’s why you’ll often hear researchers exclaim “tearing modes!” in the […]