Scientists may have found a shortcut to fusion energy

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory may have found a dramatically more efficient route to fusion energy by reversing the traditional approach: heating plasma first, then increasing its density. Their calculations could help future reactors reach self-sustaining fusion with far less energy while avoiding hidden problems that make ignition harder. Scientists may have found a shortcut to fusion energy.

Scientists may have found a shortcut to fusion energy Science News from research organizations Scientists may have found a shortcut to fusion energy Scientists have uncovered a potentially far more efficient path to fusion ignition that could bring the dream of practical fusion energy closer to reality. S.Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have identified a potentially much more efficient way to achieve fusion ignition, a major milestone in the pursuit of practical fusion energy. Their calculations suggest that changing the order in which plasma is heated and compressed could dramatically reduce the energy needed to reach a self-sustaining fusion reaction.

For more than seven decades, fusion researchers have relied on a mathematical rule to determine whether plasma can remain sufficiently hot and dense, for a long enough period, to sustain fusion without additional external heating. Known as the Lawson criterion, this equation defines the conditions required for ignition. It does not explain the most efficient way to achieve them.

Now, PPPL physicists Luis Delgado-Aparicio, Masayuki Ono, and Jonathan Menard have developed a more comprehensive version of the criterion.