A Collaborative National Center for Fusion & Plasma Research

ITER

ITER is a large international fusion experiment aimed at demonstrating the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy.

ITER (Latin for "the way") will play a critical role advancing the worldwide availability of energy from fusion — the power source of the sun and the stars.

To produce practical amounts of fusion power on earth, heavy forms of hydrogen are joined together at high temperature with an accompanying production of heat energy. The fuel must be held at a temperature of over 100 million degrees Celsius. At these high temperatures, the electrons are detached from the nuclei of the atoms, in a state of matter called plasma.

Dr. Richard J Hawryluk

Richard Hawryluk, Associate Director for Fusion, is an internationally-known physicist and a former deputy director of PPPL. He served as the head of the National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U) Recovery Planning Project from 2016 through August of 2017. He served as interim director of the Laboratory from September 2017 through June 2018.

PPPL-led researchers seek to demonstrate a novel design for a key diagnostic tool for ITER

Scientists working under the leadership of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have developed and are preparing to test a novel design for a key diagnostic instrument for ITER, a $20 billion experimental fusion facility, or tokamak, that represents the next major step in harnessing fusion power. If proven successful, the design could replace the more conventional, bulkier instrument now planned for ITER.

The new diagnostic design marks a nationwide effort by U.S. researchers in support of U.S.