The Burning Plasma Science: Foundations subprogram advances the understanding of man-made plasmas that reach conditions near those present inside the sun and stars. Magnetic fields are used to confine these extremely hot plasmas and keep them away from all material surfaces. Among the activities supported by this subprogram are:
- Research at two major experiments (DIII-D and NSTX-U) each capable of generating plasmas with temperatures in excess of 10 million degrees.
- Theoretical work to explain the fundamental behavior of these exceedingly hot plasmas. Much of this work requires the use of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.
The DIII-D National Fusion Facility - Bringing a Star to Earth: Fusion Energy Research at DIII-D
Video courtesy of the Department of Energy
The International XGC Program at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory is using Oak Ridge National Lab's Summit supercomputer, powered by NVIDIA Volta GPUs, to simulate and predict plasma behavior for the next fusion reactor.
Video courtesy of the Department of Energy