Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have identified a potentially much more efficient way to achieve nuclear fusion, the process that powers the Sun. Their calculations suggest that changing the order in which plasma is heated and compressed could dramatically reduce the energy needed to reach ignition, a crucial milestone in the pursuit of practical fusion power.
For more than seven decades, scientists have relied on an equation called the Lawson criterion to determine whether plasma can remain sufficiently hot and dense for long enough to sustain fusion reactions without additional external heating. Developed in the 1950s, this equation establishes the conditions required for ignition, but it does not explain the most efficient way to achieve them.
Now, PPPL physicists Luis Delgado-Aparicio, Masayuki Ono, and Jonathan Menard have updated that decades-old framework. By incorporating four additional factors that influence the behavior of fusion plasma, they have developed a more comprehensive model for determining how fusion systems should heat and maintain their fuel.
Their findings were published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
To read more, click here.