Originally published December 7 2005
Princeton lab works to solve problems surrounding fusion energy
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory is working to resolve issues of cost and continuity in the generation and supply of fusion energy.
The fact that the people at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory like their four-letter words is quite obvious.
And does the general public have any hope of grasping what plasma physics and fusion energy are, and how they work?
Absolutely, and especially if they listen to laboratory director Dr. Robert Goldston, who explains fusion energy as if it were a children's story --- assuming that the children in question know what atoms are ...
"You take hydrogen gas and heat it up really hot, to a temperature 10 times hotter than the surface of the sun.
Dr. Goldston explains that in order to reach this goal, the PPPL has to address three major challenges.
To address the first requirement, PPPL is involved in ITER, which means "the way" in Latin.
For that, PPPL turns to NSTX --- the National Spherical Torus Experiment.
Dr. Maso Ono, NSTX project manager, explains that the scientists conducting experiments in NSTX control the plasma remotely from a control room filled with computer monitors.
The reason for this remote method is the temperatures of the experiments, 10,000 times hotter than the sun. "Any object will evaporate immediately," he says with a laugh and a shrug.
David Gates, principal research physicist with NSTX, uses computers to change the shape of the plasma inside the machine by altering the strength of the magnets that keep it in place.
Even though they're working at supersolar temperatures with machines worth billions of dollars amongst some of the brightest minds in the nation, the scientists at PPPL are very friendly and down-to-earth, as is the atmosphere at the lab.
For instance, Mr. Neilson sent around an e-mail titled "A Thing of Beauty Hs Arrived" when the first of 18 6,000-pound magnets for NCSX arrived at the lab.
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