Fusion Technology

Fusion reactions require extremely high temperatures–in excess of 100 million degrees Celsius–where the fuel is in a plasma (a very high energy gas) state and must be confined using magnetic fields. In case of an unexpected event, researchers must quickly shut down the high-temperature plasma by injecting small, cryogenically frozen cylinders called “pellets” that are made of a variety of hydrogen isotopes and other gasses such as neon or argon. 

The injection of solid pellet material into the fusion plasma enables researchers to deposit ions deep inside the device. This deposition occurs through a process called ablation, in which layers of atoms are vaporized from the outer surface of the pellet and then ionized due to the high temperatures. The research team plans to directly measure the ablation of various pellet types to validate and improve current computational ablation models.