We don’t know of a magic bullet yet that
can solve all of our energy needs.
It’s just a massive problem.
There are concerns about global warming, about
energy security.
And so, we need to explore different types
of energy options.
Fusion is one of the few energy sources if
we can get it to work economically, could
provide us energy for thousands of years
The Princeton Plasma Physics Lab is a Department
of Energy national laboratory
We are trying to confine a plasma 10 times
hotter than the core of the sun and at that
temperature the confined plasma will generate
fusion energy that we will then convert to
electricity.
We’re trying to produce a star here on earth.
So a plasma is a hot gas.
This beautiful beautiful distinct state of
matter can be manipulated by a magnetic field.
And there are examples all around us.
It’s the sun and the stars and 99% of the
universe.
So fusion energy is the way the sun works.
It takes very light elements and fuses them
together to make heavier elements.
That releases energy.
It’s the opposite of fission, where you
take very heavy atoms like uranium and split
them apart.
Alright, so let’s go to bay J first.
The National Spherical Torus Experiment is
an experiment that confines 50 100-million
degree plasmas to study how plasmas.
This is sort of the top view of the machine.
NSTX is over here.
You see the red bars which are part of the
toroidal field system.
That’s the electro magnets.
We are enlarging the center stack.
So we have a center solenoid that runs in
the center of our vacuum vessel, and it’s
part of our magnet system.
We’re upgrading our experiment, NSTX, and
the upgrade will be sort a sort of a factor
of 10 boost in the physics capability of the
experiment.
What it means is, it’s going to increase
that confinement, and we would be able to
be closer and closer to what a fusion reactor
would be.
Our goal in fusion research is to make a power
plant that would replace a coal power plant
or a nuclear power plant.
It would basically change societies across
the globe.
Investing in basic plasma physics, understanding
how plasmas behave will eventually lead us
to a limitless energy source.
There are a lot of different energy sources
we should explore.
But fusion is one of the long term ideas that
could lead to a long term energy source.
