Scientists at have conducted research showing that a PPPL-developed powder dropper can successfully drop boron powder into high-temperature plasma within tokamaks that have parts made of a heat-resistant material known as tungsten.
Close-up look at a counter-intuitive way to speed the arrival of carbon-free fusion energy.
Today, the Department of Energy’s Office of Science (SC) and DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced $8.3 million for 20 research projects in High-Energy Density Laboratory Plasmas (HEDLP).
Jaime Marian is a professor at UCLA in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, studying irradiation to develop materials and improve fusion reactor designs.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $3.2 million in funding for universities, national laboratories, and non-profit organizations to support frontier plasma science experiments at several midscale DOE collaborative research facilities (CRFs) across the nation.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Steve Cowley, PPPL’s director, were featured on the July 23 “CBS Saturday Morning.”
PPPL researchers have found a way to build powerful magnets smaller than before, aiding the design and construction of machines that could help the world harness the power of the sun to create electricity without producing greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.
PPPL researchers have found that updating a mathematical model to include a physical property known as resistivity could lead to the improved design of doughnut-shaped fusion facilities known as tokamaks.
The latest research news in Climate Science on Newswise.
New finding could solve a paradox in spherical tokamak fusion experiments.
Story reveals a potentially critical issue for stellarator designers to avoid.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced awards for 18 projects with private industry to enhance collaboration with DOE national laboratories and U.S. universities to overcome challenges in fusion energy development.
Magnetic reconnections in laser-produced plasmas have been studied to understand the microscopic electron dynamics, which is applicable to space and astrophysical phenomena.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that 18 million node-hours have been awarded to 45 scientific projects under the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) Leadership Computing Challenge (ALCC) program. The projects, with applications ranging from advanced energy systems to climate change to cancer research, will use DOE supercomputers to uncover unique insights about scientific problems that would otherwise be impossible to solve using experimental approaches.
Luis Chacon of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Applied Mathematics and Plasma Physics group is the winner of the prestigious Ernest Orlando Lawrence award for 2021.
PPPL scientists have uncovered critical new details about fusion facilities that use lasers to compress the fuel that produces fusion energy. The new data could help lead to the improved design of future laser facilities that harness the fusion process that drives the sun and stars.
Major overhaul of a collaborative department aims to enhance PPPL’s role as the U.S. national laboratory devoted to the science of fusion energy.
Nuclear fusion reactions in stars consume carbon-12 to produce oxygen-16, and the resulting ratio of carbon to oxygen shapes a star’s evolution. Physicists have not been able to measure this ratio with precision using existing experimental methods. A new method shines gamma beams on an oxygen-16 target and captures images of the outgoing reaction products to obtain higher-quality data on this reaction.
Fusion reactors face a challenge called “core-edge integration,” which involves maintaining a plasma that is hot at the core but not too hot to damage reactor walls. New research finds that a previously identified operating regime called Super H-mode can leverage the use of impurities such as nitrogen to address this challenge. The research also indicates that Super-H mode can be scaled up to future fusion plants.
The nuclei that smash together to produce fusion energy in a reactor originate from ionized neutral particles. The edges of fusion devices have large numbers of neutrals available to gain or lose electrons to become ions. These neutrals influence several important features of the plasma, including the rate at which the plasma fuels a reactor. A new pinhole camera system called Lyman-alpha Measurement Apparatus (LLAMA) on the DIII-D tokamak helped researchers better understand these neutrals.
Harnessing the power that makes the sun and stars shine could be made easier by powerful magnets with straighter shapes than have been made before. Researchers linked to the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory have found a way to create such magnets for fusion facilities known as stellarators.
The National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U) at PPPL could serve as the model for a fusion energy pilot plant.
One of the challenges of fusion tokamaks is how to keep the core of a plasma hot enough that fusion can occur while preventing the tokamak walls from melting from that heat. This problem is even more difficult if instabilities at the plasma edge release energy in short bursts instead of a steady flow. Experiments on the DIII-D tokamak have demonstrated that enhancing energy flow in the plasma edge due to turbulent fluctuations can bleed energy smoothly out of the plasma, leading to improved future fusion plant efficiency.
One current and two former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists have been inducted into the Laboratory’s Entrepreneurs’ Hall of Fame (EHF).
Amelia Chambliss, a recent Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship student at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, discussed the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and public outreach at the White House fusion energy summit.
Steve Cowley, PPPL director, was among climate and energy experts from national laboratories, universities, private industry, government agencies, and congressional representatives gathered together on March 17 at the first ever White House summit, “Developing a Bold Decadal Vision for Commercial Fusion Energy,” organized by the Office of Science Technology Policy (OSTP) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
Meet Richard Buttery, director of DIII-D, the largest magnetic fusion device in the United States. As a Department of Energy Office of Science user facility, DIII-D plays a leading role in the advancement of #fusionenergy research. This is one in a series of profiles on the directors of the SC-stewarded user facilities.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a plan to provide up to $50 million to support U.S. scientists conducting experimental research in fusion energy science at tokamak and spherical tokamak facilities in the U.S. and around the globe.
PPPL is now accepting applications for its latest cohort of apprentices for fields including electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, information technology, welding, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HAC).
Don't miss these articles in our Staff Picks channel
Tokamak fusion reactors will generate huge amounts of heat that can damage reactor walls. Injecting impurities in the form of gases into the plasma can radiate away excess heat, but there is a limited range of gases that can be injected, and some gases react poorly with hydrogen fusion fuel. A new approach uses impurities in powder form, which allows researchers to introduce a considerable amount of material directly into the exhaust system for more efficient heat control.
PPPL scientists have designed a new type of magnet that could aid devices ranging from doughnut-shaped fusion facilities known as tokamaks to medical machines that create detailed pictures of the human body.
The first detailed look at both a pilot plant and a comprehensive research facility.
Top officials from the White House and the U.S. Department of Energy visited the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory recently to discuss how to accelerate the development of fusion energy as a clean, abundant, and safe way to generate electricity.
Lab experts help measure this month's fusion milestone at Joint European Torus (JET) with cutting-edge diagnostics.
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Article profiles path-setting technique for improving the design of twisty stellarator fusion facilities.
Here are some of the latest articles we've posted in the Physical Science channel.
A close-up look at the PPPL collaboration that helped set the stage for JET's recent record output that advances the development of safe and clean fusion power.
Simulation of a novel particle injector shows its potential to mitigate a major challenge to the international fusion experiment going up in France.
A solar physicist at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) has been awarded a five-year, $616,000 National Science Foundation CAREER award to study how solar flares explosively release magnetic energy and create energetic particles.
PPPL researchers have gained insight into a fundamental process found throughout the universe. This insight could help scientists predict enormous burps of plasma from the sun that could threaten satellites and electrical grids on Earth.
PPPL's machine learning expertise is aiding French company Renaissance Fusion through a unique U.S. Department of Energy program.
For more than 60 years, scientists have sought to understand and control the process of fusion, a quest to harness the vast amounts of energy released when nuclei in fuel come together. A paper published today in the journal Nature describes recent experiments that have achieved a burning plasma state in fusion, helping steer fusion research closer than it has ever been to its ultimate goal: a self-sustaining, controlled reaction.
Arturo Dominguez, the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory's (PPPL) new head of Science Education, is a plasma physicist who has been a science educator at PPPL for nearly 10 years.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a plan to provide up to $6 million to support frontier plasma science experiments at several plasma research facilities across the nation.
Magnetic confinement fields in tokamaks can contain areas called magnetic islands in which plasma particles move extra quickly, preventing the plasma from reaching fusion temperatures. Researchers have now observed the spontaneous formation of a structure in the plasma with multiple magnetic islands. These “heteroclinic islands” do not merge into each other while embedded in a larger magnetic field tube. This information will aid the design and operation of future fusion reactors.
Path-setting findings demonstrate for the first time a novel regime for confining heat in stellarators. The demonstration could advance the twisty design as a blueprint for future fusion power plants.
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Thirteen stories that highlight PPPL findings during the past year.
Profiles of the three PPPL physicists who have won the 2021 Kaul Foundation award and their path-setting work to reproduce fusion energy on Earth.
Tim Stevenson, an engineer who has been an integral part of major experiments in his 37-year career at PPPL, was named a Distinguished Engineering Fellow for his contributions to two flagship experiments in the drive to bring to Earth the fusion energy that powers the sun and stars.
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