COLLOQUIUM: Excitement at the Plasma Boundary"

We now know how to heat plasmas to thermonuclear temperatures, and even how to confine the resulting hot plasmas to produce immense amounts of fusion power. The next major R&D challenge is to cope with these successes: How can we handle the heat flux that emerges from a fusion plasma and ultimately impinges on material surfaces? This heat flux is naturally focused spatially, and often temporally, amplifying the challenge.

We will overview 1) the magnitude of the heat-flux challenge, 2) scientific understanding of the underlying processes that control heat-flux focusing, and 3) possible solutions. A major conclusion is that the plasma boundary is a rich frontier for both scientific understanding and creative innovation.