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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Scientists discover how to stabilise plasma in fusion reactors

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Researchers have found a way to keep plasma in nuclear fusion reactors stable and prevent temperature and density levels from careening up and down. The new findings constitute a significant development in the quest for nuclear fusion energy, which many believe will provide unlimited, green energy once engineers learn how to harness this power source.


A team of physicists at the US Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory at Princeton University’s Forrestal Campus in New Jersey has developed simulations of the mechanism that keeps fusion plasma stable.


Plasma is one of the four states of matter.


However, under normal conditions on Earth, it cannot exist as freely as solid, liquid, or gas.


In the stars, plasma is naturally abundant, but on Earth this super-heated jelly of highly charged particles is generated in fusion reactors, such as stellarators and doughnut-shaped tokamaks.


Sometimes, plasma found in fusion reactors vacillate back and forth in terms of temperature and density. Inside the heart of nuclear fusion reactors, scientists attempt to replicate the same process that powers the stars and hydrogen bombs.


The process works when super-heated hydrogen atoms suspended in plasma crash into one another, splitting into highly charged ions and electrons that fuse to form helium.


As fusion occurs, the atoms produce enormous amounts of heat and energy that can potentially be used to generate electricity. A small amount of liquid hydrogen can generate as much electricity as 28 tonnes of coal, but without the radioactive waste that comes with nuclear fission reactors such as Chernobyl and Fukushima.


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