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Fusion reactor design

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The design of devices that use powerful magnetic fields to control plasma so fusion can take place. The most widely used magnetic confinement device is the tokamak, followed by the stellarator.

PPPL physicist receives funding to research improvements to unique fusion device

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory physicist Sam Cohen will receive funding from a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) award to his collaborator to upgrade and operate his Princeton Field Reversed Configuration device, the PFRC-2. The data produced could allow the design of future devices that might one day be used as a portable generator. 

Cohen will receive $700,000 from a $1.25 million award from the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to Princeton Fusion Systems, which is working with Cohen on development of the device. 

Steve Cowley: The knight who leads the Lab has “the most fun job”

“It’s just all been fun, and this is the most fun job I’ve ever had,” Steve Cowley says of his much-decorated career and his new position, which he assumed July 1, as the seventh director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) — the place where the British-born physicist earned his doctorate and that he calls “the most important fusion laboratory in the world.”

Knighted in October 

From the cosmos to fusion plasmas, PPPL presents findings at global APS gathering

More than 135 researchers and students from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) presented their latest findings at the 60th annual meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics — a worldwide gathering focused on fundamental plasma science research and discoveries. Some 1,700 participants from more than two dozen countries joined the November 5-to-9 event in Portland, Oregon, presenting posters and talks on topics ranging from astrophysical plasmas to nanotechnology to magnetic confinement fusion experiments.

New simulations confirm efficiency of waste-removal process in plasma device

Just as fire produces ash, the combining of light elements in fusion reactions can produce material that eventually interferes with those same reactions. Now, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have found evidence suggesting that a process could remove the unwanted material and make the fusion processes more efficient within a type of fusion facility known as a field-reversed configuration (FRC) device.

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory designated an historic mechanical engineering site

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) on Oct. 5 presented the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) with an engraved plaque designating the Laboratory an ASME historic mechanical engineering landmark for its achievements in the quest to develop magnetically controlled fusion energy. The ASME, which “promotes the art, science and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe,” recognized  the Laboratory for its entire body of mechanical engineering achievements since 1951.

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory designated an historic mechanical engineering site

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) on Oct. 5 presented the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) with an engraved plaque designating the Laboratory an ASME historic mechanical engineering landmark for its achievements in the quest to develop magnetically controlled fusion energy. The ASME, which “promotes the art, science and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe,” recognized  the Laboratory for its entire body of mechanical engineering achievements since 1951.

Plasma physics award won by PPPL postdoctoral fellow for novel approach to designing coils for fusion energy

Caoxiang Zhu, a postdoctoral researcher at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), has won the 2018 CAI Shidong Award for plasma physics in China. His research describes a computer code that Zhu developed with the help of PPPL physicists that takes a novel approach to designing the complex magnetic coils that confine plasma in fusion devices called stellarators, which are focused on one day creating energy using the process that powers the sun and the stars. 

Energy Secretary Rick Perry cheers on fusion energy, science education at PPPL

The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory’s (PPPL) mission of doing research to develop fusion as a viable source of energy is vital to the future of the planet, U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said during an Aug. 9 visit. 

“It’s important not just to PPPL, not just to the DOE (Department of Energy) but to the world,” Perry told staff members during an all-hands meeting. “If we’re able to deliver fusion energy to the world, we’re able to change the world forever.” 

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