News release for PPPL paper on update to TRANSP code to better simulate the interaction between energetic particles and instabilities in fusion plasmas.
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have for the first time simulated the formation of structures called "plasmoids" during Coaxial Helicity Injection (CHI), a process that could simplify the design of fusion facilities known as tokamaks. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have for the first time simulated the formation of structures called "plasmoids" during Coaxial Helicity Injection (CHI), a process that could simplify the design of fusion facilities known as tokamaks. The findings, reported in the journal Physical Review Letters, involve the formation of plasmoids in the hot, charged plasma gas that fuels fusion reactions. These round structures carry current that could eliminate the need for solenoids – large magnetic coils that wind down the center of today's tokamaks – to initiate the plasma and complete the magnetic field that confines the hot gas.
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Timothy Stoltzfus-Dueck, a physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), has demonstrated a novel method that scientists can use to manipulate the intrinsic – or self-generated – rotation of hot, charged plasma gas within fusion facilities called tokamaks.
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have developed a detailed model of the source of a puzzling limitation on fusion reactions. The findings, published this month in Physics of Plasmas, complete and confirm previous PPPL research and could lead to steps to overcome the barrier if the model proves consistent with experimental data.
Scientist Elena Belova of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and a team of collaborators have proposed an explanation for why the hot plasma within fusion facilities called tokamaks sometimes fails to reach the required temperature, even as researchers pump beams of fast-moving neutral atoms into the plasma in an effort to make it hotter.
PPPL presented its 2015 outstanding research awards to engineer Charles Neumeyer and physicist Rajesh Maingi following Stewart Prager’s October 5 State of the Laboratory address.
An enduring astronomical mystery is how stars and galaxies acquire their magnetic fields. Physicists Jonathan Squire and Amitava Bhattacharjee at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have found a clue to the answer in the collective behavior of small magnetic disturbances.
Two U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories working on very different types of fusion experiments have begun a novel collaboration. Under the arrangement, the DOE’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) will design a diagnostic system to provide high-resolution analysis of research on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).
A team of physicists led by Stephen Jardin of the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) has discovered a mechanism that prevents the electrical current flowing through fusion plasma from repeatedly peaking and crashing. This behavior is known as a "sawtooth cycle" and can cause instabilities within the plasma's core.
At the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, the spirit of tinkering lives. This past summer a team of engineers invented a mechanical device designed to be installed on ITER, the multinational fusion machine being built in the south of France, using 3D printing and parts bought at Walmart.
Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and other U.S. institutions joined colleagues from around the world at the celebration for the first plasma of the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) stellarator at the Max Planck Institute in Greifswald, Germany. The Dec. 10.
Schweickhard “Schwick” von Goeler, an award-winning physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) for more than 35 years and the inventor of numerous X-ray diagnostics used in fusion experiments worldwide, died of leukemia on Dec. 6 in Springfield, Massachusetts. He was 84.
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have produced self-consistent computer simulations that capture the evolution of an electric current inside fusion plasma without using a central electromagnet, or solenoid.
Engineers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have finished designing a novel component for the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) stellarator, which recently opened at the Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics (IPP) in Griefswald, Germany.
Fusion energy is natural, safe, environmentally-friendly, conservation- friendly, and international. Here are 10 facts you should know about fusion energy.
Shannon Greco, a science education program leader at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, has been named one of the YWCA Princeton’s “women of excellence” for her work with young women and disadvantaged youth, including her help in starting two all-girls robotics teams for the YWCA Princeton.
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), who collaborate with the Max Planck Institute in Germany on the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) fusion energy reactor, congratulated the team for starting its scientific investigations on fusion energy by producing its first hydrogen plasma on Feb. 3.
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) physicists collaborating on the Wendelstein 7-X (W 7-X) stellarator fusion energy device in Greifswald, Germany were on hand for the Feb. 3 celebration when German Chancellor Angela Merkel pushed a button to produce a hydrogen-fueled superhot gas called a plasma.
Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) appear to have gained important new insights into what affects turbulence within tokamaks, which can impact the leakage of heat from the fusion plasma. Understanding how fusion plasmas lose heat is crucial because the more a plasma is able to retain its heat the more efficient a fusion reactor can be.
This winter, a group of past and present PPPL graduate students collaborated on a new exhibition at the Princeton University Art Museum that explores the connections between art and physics.
PPPL inventors won an award for their invention of an on-demand method to create a badly needed isotope used routinely in medical imaging for diagnosis.
Engineers at PPPL have developed an updated version of a key electronic component that helps regulate the current that powers the coils in PPPL's recently completed National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade.
Fifity middle school boys came to the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory on March 4 for a half-day of hands-on science activities. The event was one of many National Week at the Labs events taking place Feb. 29 to March 4 as part of President Obama's My Brother's Keeper Program. The initiative is aimed at supporting and inspiring boys and young men of color to succeed in school and go on to college and successful careers.
The DOE's Associate Director of Science for Fusion Energy Sciences Ed Synakowski discusses key discoveries in the quest to develop fusion energy as a clean, affordable, abundant, and environmentally friendly source of generating electric energy.