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Plasma Physics news
Plasma fusion: Adding just enough fuel to the fire
How much fuel can we add to the fire while still maintaining control? Metaphorically speaking, that's the question one team at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) has been asking themselves ...
Plasma Physics
14 hours ago
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New design prolongs the lifespan of plasma torches
Thanks to a new design contributed by a research team led by Prof. Zhao Peng from Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the operation time for plasma torch gas been extended from ...
Plasma Physics
Mar 20, 2024
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New research on tungsten unlocks potential for improving fusion materials
In the pursuit of clean and endless energy, nuclear fusion is a promising frontier. But in fusion reactors, where scientists attempt to make energy by fusing atoms together, mimicking the sun's power generation process, things ...
Condensed Matter
Mar 13, 2024
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Researchers generate super-fast electrons with table-top laser systems
In massive particle accelerators, sub-atomic particles (like electrons) are sped up to super-high speeds comparable to the speed of light towards a target surface. The collision of accelerated sub-atomic particles gives rise ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 13, 2024
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Study shows inverting fusion plasmas improves performance
To become commercially viable, fusion power plants must create and sustain the plasma conditions necessary for fusion reactions. However, at high temperatures and densities, plasmas often develop gradients in those temperatures ...
Plasma Physics
Mar 12, 2024
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One way to improve a fusion reaction: Use weaknesses as strengths
In the Japanese art of Kintsugi, an artist takes the broken shards of a bowl and fuses them back together with gold to make a final product more beautiful than the original.
Condensed Matter
Mar 5, 2024
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Tests show high-temperature superconducting magnets are ready for fusion
In the predawn hours of Sept. 5, 2021, engineers achieved a major milestone in the labs of MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC), when a new type of magnet, made from high-temperature superconducting material, achieved ...
Superconductivity
Mar 4, 2024
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Plasma oscillations propel breakthroughs in fusion energy
Most people know about solids, liquids, and gases as the main three states of matter, but a fourth state of matter exists as well. Plasma—also known as ionized gas—is the most abundant, observable form of matter in our ...
Plasma Physics
Mar 4, 2024
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Researchers achieve real-time microscopic imaging during plasma treatment
An interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Antwerp (Belgium) successfully conducted in-situ studies with a plasma generated inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM). This marks the first time live SEM ...
Plasma Physics
Feb 28, 2024
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Novel theory-based evaluation gives a clearer picture of fusion in the sun
Most of the energy from the sun and other stars comes from a chain of nuclear fusion reactions. The end of this chain is marked by the fusion of protons with beryllium-7 to form boron-8. This process is key in determining ...
General Physics
Feb 26, 2024
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Scientists explain: What is inertial fusion energy?
Fusion is a natural phenomenon that provides our planet with much of its energy—generated millions of miles away in the center of our sun.
Plasma Physics
Feb 24, 2024
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In a doughnut in Japan, unlocking the power of the Sun
With its tangle of pipes and pumps leading to a metal pot the size of a five-storey building, Japan's JT-60SA machine looks to the untrained eye like a contraption from 1970s sci-fi.
Plasma Physics
Feb 22, 2024
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Engineers use AI to wrangle fusion power for the grid
In the blink of an eye, the unruly, superheated plasma that drives a fusion reaction can lose its stability and escape the strong magnetic fields confining it within the donut-shaped fusion reactor. These getaways frequently ...
Plasma Physics
Feb 21, 2024
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Plasma scientists develop computer programs that could reduce the cost of microchips, stimulate manufacturing
Fashioned from the same element found in sand and covered by intricate patterns, microchips power smartphones, augment appliances and aid the operation of cars and airplanes.
Plasma Physics
Feb 21, 2024
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Fusion research facility's final tritium experiments yield new energy record
The Joint European Torus (JET), one of the world's largest and most powerful fusion machines, has demonstrated the ability to reliably generate fusion energy, while simultaneously setting a world record in energy output.
Plasma Physics
Feb 8, 2024
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NIF fusion breakeven claims peer reviewed and verified by multiple teams
Five independent teams of researchers have reviewed the work and claims made by a group at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) who announced in December 2022 that they had achieved the first laser-powered fusion reaction ...
Artificially intelligent software provides a detailed look at jets of plasma used to treat cancer
Artificially intelligent software has been developed to enhance medical treatments that use jets of electrified gas known as plasma. The computer code predicts the chemicals emitted by plasma devices, which can be used to ...
Plasma Physics
Feb 6, 2024
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Scientists create effective 'spark plug' for direct-drive inertial confinement fusion experiments
Scientists from the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) led experiments to demonstrate an effective "spark plug" for direct-drive methods of inertial confinement fusion (ICF). In two studies published ...
Plasma Physics
Feb 5, 2024
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First demonstration of predictive control of fusion plasma by digital twin
Fusion energy is being developed as a solution to global energy problems. In particular, the magnetic confinement method, in which ultra-high temperature plasma is confined by a magnetic field, is the most advanced and is ...
Plasma Physics
Jan 26, 2024
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New design improves water decontamination via plasma jet
Plasma is an ionized gas—that is, a gas containing electrons, ions, atoms, molecules, radicals, and photons. It is often called the fourth state of matter, and surprisingly, it permeates everything. Plasmas, which are artificially ...
Plasma Physics
Jan 24, 2024
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