New findings further the understanding of a machine known as the magnetorotational instability experiment, which is named for and brings us closer to detecting the source of the instability that causes interstellar gas and dust to collapse into celestial bodies.
Feature describes newly discovered stabilizing effect of underappreciated 1983 finding that variations in plasma temperature can influence the growth of magnetic islands that lead to disruption of fusion plasmas.
Feature summarizes and links to discoveries and breakthroughs at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in 2018, plus a profile of the knight who leads the laboratory.
Feature describes research of three PPPL physicists who have won the laboratory's 2018 outstanding research awards
Article describes INCITE award of major time on three supercomputers to PPPL-let team to study the complex edge of fusion plasmas.
A new phenomena forms vortices that trap particles, impeding electron avalanches that harm fusion reactors.
Profile of Steve Cowley, new director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory whom the Queen of England knighted in October.
NSF EPSCoR CPU2AL program in Huntsville, Alabama, is now accepting applications for their Alabama Plasma Internship Program from undergraduate students enrolled at institutions across the Southeastern U.S. (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico). The application deadline is Jan. 18, 2019, 1 p.m. CDT.
A whiff of plasma, when combined with a nanosized catalyst, can cause chemical reactions to proceed faster, more selectively, at lower temperatures, or at lower voltages than without plasma. Using computer modeling, researchers investigated the interactions between plasmas and metal catalysts embedded into ceramic beads in a packed bed reactor. They discovered that together, the metals, beads and gas create plasma that intensifies electric fields and locally heats the catalyst, which can then accelerate reactions. They will present at the APS 71st Annual Gaseous Electronics Conference and 60th Annual meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics, Nov. 5-9.
Astrophysicists have long wondered how cosmic magnetic fields fields are produced, sustained, and magnified. PPPL scientists have shown that plasma turbulence might be responsible, providing a possible answer to what has been called one of the most important unsolved problems in plasma astrophysics.
We all know microwaves are good for cooking popcorn, but scientists have recently shown they can also prevent dangerous waves in plasmas and help produce clean, nearly limitless energy with fusion.
Fusion offers the potential of near limitless energy by heating a gas trapped in a magnetic field to incredibly high temperatures where atoms are so energetic that they fuse together when they collide. But if that hot gas, called a plasma, breaks free from the magnetic field, it must be safely put back in place to avoid damaging the fusion device—this problem has been one of the great challenges of magnetically confined fusion.
The Plasma Sciences Expo—planned as the biggest celebration of plasma physics in the country—presents teachers, students and the public with a free opportunity to explore what scientists call “the fourth state of matter.”
Scientists are working to dramatically speed up the development of fusion energy in an effort to deliver power to the electric grid soon enough to help mitigate impacts of climate change. The arrival of a breakthrough technology
AIP Publishing has announced its selection of Daniel S. Clark, a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and leader of the National Ignition Facility’s (NIF) Capsule Modeling Working Group within the inertial confinement fusion (ICF) Program, as the winner of the 2018 Ronald C. Davidson Award for Plasma Physics.
AIP Publishing has announced its selection of Daniel S. Clark, a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and leader of the National Ignition Facility’s Capsule Modeling Working Group within the inertial confinement fusion Program, as the winner of the 2018 Ronald C. Davidson Award for Plasma Physics. The annual award is presented by AIP Publishing in collaboration with the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics, to recognize outstanding plasma physics research by an author published in the journal Physics of Plasmas.
The American Physical Society (APS) 71st Annual Gaseous Electronics Conference and 60th Annual meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics will take place next week, Nov. 5-9, at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. These two co-located meetings will form one of the largest gatherings of their kind anywhere in the world this year, with more than 2,000 attendees expected from around the world to convene and discuss the basic understanding and groundbreaking applications of different types of plasma science.
PPPL scientists have found evidence suggesting that a process could remove the unwanted ash produced during fusion reactions and make the fusion processes more efficient within a type of fusion facility known as a field-reversed configuration device.
American Society of Mechanical Engineers names PPPL an historic landmark site.
Shannon Swilley Greco, a program leader in the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory's Science Education Office, is vice chair elect of the American Physical Society's Forum on Outreach and Engaging the Public.
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and other laboratories, using data from a NASA four-satellite mission that is studying reconnection, have developed a method for identifying the source of waves that help satellites determine their location in space.
Click here to go directly to the DOE Science News Source
For fusion power plants to be effective, scientists must find a way to trigger the low-to-high confinement transition, or “L-H transition” for short. Scientists have observed that the L-H transition is always associated with zonal flows of plasma. Theoretically, zonal flows in a plasma consist of both a stationary flow with a near-zero frequency and one that oscillates at a higher frequency called the geodesic acoustic mode. For the first time, researchers have detected GAM at two different points simultaneously within the reactor. This new experimental setup will be a useful diagnostic tool for investigating the physics of zonal flows, and their role in the L-H transition. The researchers report these findings in a new paper published in Physics of Plasmas.
Embargoed news release reports discovery of important new method for reducing instabilities in fusion plasmas without triggering fresh instabilities that can damage a fusion facility's walls.
Piece describes selection of deep learning system for predicting fusion disruptions as one of 10 Aurora Early Science exascale projects.
On August 15, a cohort of undergraduate students who had participated in the Summer Undergraduate Laboratory Internship and Community College Internship programs presented the results of the plasma physics work they had completed since their internships began on June 11.
In magnetic confinement fusion devices known as tokamaks, the maximum operational density limits the efficiency and now we know how this limit may be overcome.
Enabling beams to respond to plasma conditions in real time allows scientists to avoid instabilities and raise performance.
In a set of recent experiments, scientists have tamed a damaging plasma instability in a way that could lead to the efficient and steady-state operation of ITER, the international tokamak experiment under construction in France to demonstrate the practicality of fusion power.
New technique allows the spatiotemporal control of laser intensity, potentially changing the way laser-based accelerators are optimized.
DOE award of 40 million core hours on Cori supercomputer to scientists at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory enables simulation of damaging disruptions so that researchers can learn how to stop them.
Article describes simulation of physics behind elimination of sawtooth instabilities.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser system has set a new record, firing 2.15 megajoules (MJ) of energy to its target chamber – a 15 percent improvement over NIF’s design specification of 1.8 MJ, and more than 10 percent higher than the previous 1.9 MJ energy record set in March 2012. Increasing NIF’s energy limit will expand the parameter space for stockpile stewardship experiments and provide a significant boost to the pursuit of ignition.
“Our research sheds new light on the function of plasma, the state of matter that comprises 99 percent of the visible universe,” writes Steve Cowley, new director of PPPL. Quest summarizes much of the research that occurred at PPPL over the last year.
Article describes XICS measurement of W7-X temperature that contributed to stellarator world record.
An international team is running tests on the largest and most sophisticated stellerator, the Wendelstein 7-X fusion experiment. This complex machine is housed at the Max-Planck-Institute of Plasma Physics, and researchers are analyzing data from the first experiment campaign that took place in 2016, hoping to understand the science of fusion reactors. In a new report in Physics of Plasma, the scientists recount the first detailed characterization of plasma turbulence at the outer edge of the stellerator.
Supercomputer simulations and theoretical analysis shed new light on when and how fast reconnection occurs.
Article describes PPPL winner of DOE Early Career Awards.
An experimental campaign conducted at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) – the world’s largest and most energetic laser – has achieved a total fusion neutron yield of 1.9e16 (1.9x1016) and 54 KJ of fusion energy output – double the previous record. The experiments utilized a diamond capsule – a layer of ultra-thin high-density carbon containing the deuterium-tritium (DT) fusion fuel. In addition to increased yield, the experiments achieved unprecedented pressures, exceeding those found at the center of the Sun.
Steven Cowley, newly named director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) effective July 1, has received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth “for services to science and the development of nuclear fusion.”
A mysterious mechanism that prevents instabilities may be similar to the process that maintains the Earth's magnetic field.
Article describes results of new simulation of magnetic islands.
Article about 23rd international biennial conference on plasma surface interactions in controlled fusion devices to be held June 17-22 at Princeton University.
The latest in space and astronomy in the Space News Source
A team of PPPL scientists has won a DOE Office of Science award to develop new X-ray diagnostics for WEST — the Tungsten (W) Environment in Steady-state Tokamak — in Cadarache, France.
When whistler waves are present in a fusion plasma, runaway electrons pay attention. A research team led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory is the first to directly observe the elusive waves inside a highly energized magnetic field as electrons zoom around the plasma.
Energetic ions and beam heating cause or calm instabilities, depending on the tokamak’s magnetic field.
Article describes effect of ion and electron heating on multiscale turbulence in fusion plasmas.
A new study calls for the U.S. to step up its laser R&D efforts to better compete with major overseas efforts to build large, high-power laser systems, and notes progress and milestones at the Department of Energy’s Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA) Center and other sites.
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