Spinning Plasma Solves a Long-Standing Fusion Reactor Mystery

Spinning Plasma Solves a Long-Standing Fusion Reactor Mystery

A persistent asymmetry in fusion exhaust has challenged researchers for years. New simulations show that plasma core rotation, working together with cross-field drifts, determines where particles land inside a tokamak. Tokamaks are often described as giant magnetic “doughnuts,” built to keep an ultra-hot soup of charged particles suspended long enough for atomic nuclei to fuse [...]

Nuclear Fusion: Mystery of the Tokamak Reactor's "Exhaust Pipe" Solved - Economic Scenarios

While the world dreams of the infinite, clean energy of nuclear fusion, engineers grapple daily with far more mundane problems. One of these is the thermonuclear equivalent of the exhaust pipe: the divertor. For years, physicists could not explain why plasma particles inside Tokamak reactors systematically slammed into the interior of this component, asymmetrically wearing down the materials. Now, new simulations reveal that the answer lies not …