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Magnetically confined plasmas are those plasmas that are trapped using magnetic fields. Magnetic fields can prevent high-temperature plasma coming into contact with solid materials that it could damage or destroy. Magnetically confined plasmas offer one possible route to sustained nuclear fusion.
In open-field-line magnetic plasma traps, the attainable cross-field voltage drops are limited by the tolerances of the solid materials of the vacuum vessel. Here, the authors demonstrate the possibility of equilibria that isolate large voltage drops to the interior of the plasma, circumventing this limit.
Damaging energy bursts in a tokamak are a major obstacle to achieving stable high-fusion performance. Here, the authors demonstrate the use of adaptive and machine-learning control to optimize the 3D magnetic field to prevent edge bursts and maximize fusion performance in two different fusion devices, DIII-D and KSTAR.
A stable tokamak plasma has been demonstrated with a high plasma density and a high energy confinement quality, both of which are simultaneously important for fusion reactors.
The successes of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) and the Joint European Torus (JET) showcase how fusion energy research requires bold decisions, teamwork and strong partnership with funders.
Pietro Barabaschi, Director General of ITER, calls for measures and incentives to carefully document the entire research process, including dead ends and failures, instead of reporting just the successful final results.
A paper in Nature shows how reinforcement learning can solve the problem of optimizing the magnetic field in a tokamak to create a variety of plasma configurations, including ones that haven’t been achieved before.
Science diplomacy has become an important dimension of international relations. Here’s a take on the past, present and future of fusion science diplomacy and the role such big collaborative endeavours play in shaping the future of this field in the international political sphere.
The assembly of the more than a million single parts of the ITER tokamak requires large-scale three-dimensional precision metrology. John Villanueva Jr gives us insights into the complexity of this project.