Plasma Power: Plasma Machines
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The first photo shows the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR), a large fusion device operated at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) during the 1980s and 1990s. The inside of TFTR was shaped like a donut (a torus). Moving in a circular path around the center of the torus, the plasma reached temperatures of more than 500 million degrees, well beyond the 100 million needed for practical fusion. Ideally, commercial fusion reactors will operate continuously, but TFTR was designed to operate only in bursts. In one of these bursts, its power output exceeded 10 million watts, enough to power more than 3,000 homes.
Photo courtesy of Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
With the TFTR's research program complete, the PPPL physicists and engineers have built a smaller, nearly spherical device, the National Spherical Torus Experiment, (NSTX), shown in the second photo. Theorists believe that the spherical torus geometry will facilitate plasma confinement and eventually provide a more efficient method of sustaining fusion reactions.
Photo courtesy of Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
