plasma physics Archives

News

Multi-million-pound investment to fast-track fusion fuel development

The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA)’s £200 million Lithium Breeding Tritium Innovation (LIBRTI) programme has announced a series of significant steps to advance fusion energy development. The announcement aligns with the UK’s Department for Energy and Net Zero’s recent support…

Leah CrepazJanuary 17, 2025

News

The 61st Culham Plasma Physics Summer School is open to applications.

The school will cover fundamental plasma physics, as well as important topics in fusion, astrophysical, laser and low temperature plasmas. Lecturers are drawn from the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) together with leading European universities.…

Mathew BanksJanuary 29, 2024

Interior of JET with a superimposed plasma

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Fusion energy record demonstrates powerplant future

Landmark results from EUROfusion scientists and engineers at world-leading UK Atomic Energy Authority’s Joint European Torus (JET) facility in Oxford Record-breaking 59 megajoules of sustained fusion energy demonstrates powerplant potential and strengthens case for ITER Fusion energy is crucial in…

Curtis WoodleyFebruary 9, 2022

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Watch iconic fusion energy machine’s 100,000th ‘pulse’

Iconic fusion energy machine JET – which reaches controlled temperatures 10 times hotter than the core of the sun – completed its 100,000th live pulse last night. Weighing 2,800 tonnes, the same as 14 blue whales, the Joint European Torus (JET)…

Nick HollowayJanuary 19, 2022

News

Strong Culham participation at leading European fusion conference

Culham scientists will share their expert research at the 47th European Physical Society’s (EPS) Plasma Physics conference this week (June 21 – June 25). Of particular note at the event – Europe’s premier fusion science conference, hosted online for the first time ever…

Nick HollowayJune 22, 2021

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First results from UK experiment point to a solution to one of fusion’s hottest problems

Culham scientists have successfully tested a world-first concept that could clear one of the major hurdles in developing fusion energy. Initial results from the UK Atomic Energy Authority's new MAST Upgrade experiment at CCFE have demonstrated the effectiveness of an…

Nick HollowayMay 26, 2021

News

IAEA’s fusion ‘Olympics’ goes online – and heads for the UK in 2023

This year’s IAEA Fusion Energy Conference, held this week, reflected the priorities of the new era in fusion energy research. The ITER experiment is fast taking shape in France, private sector investment in fusion is at an all-time high, and…

Nick HollowayMay 15, 2021

MAST Upgrade - illustration of the Super-X divertor

News

MAST Upgrade: the vertical challenge

A new control system on Culham's MAST Upgrade experiment automatically keeps the superhot plasma fuel in check within milliseconds – allowing physicists to carry out key research with the machine’s world-first Super-X divertor system. The divertor region of ‘tokamak’ fusion…

Nick HollowayApril 30, 2021

Dr Mike Forrest - Thomson scattering experiment, 1964

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Mission to Moscow: 50 years on

Fifty years ago, five scientists from Culham Laboratory made a trip to the Soviet Union that was to prove a pivotal moment in the quest for fusion energy. Their journey to Moscow's Kurchatov Institute in 1969 confirmed the impressive results…

Nick HollowayNovember 22, 2019

Artist's illustration of a spherical tokamak power plant

News

UK to take a big ‘STEP’ to fusion electricity

The UK is taking a giant STEP towards zero carbon, safe and abundant commercial fusion electricity, with the UK Government committing £220M for the conceptual design of a fusion power station – the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP). Secretary…

Nick HollowayOctober 3, 2019

plasma physics

Multi-million-pound investment to fast-track fusion fuel development

The 61st Culham Plasma Physics Summer School is open to applications.

Fusion energy record demonstrates powerplant future

Watch iconic fusion energy machine’s 100,000th ‘pulse’

Strong Culham participation at leading European fusion conference

First results from UK experiment point to a solution to one of fusion’s hottest problems

IAEA’s fusion ‘Olympics’ goes online – and heads for the UK in 2023

MAST Upgrade: the vertical challenge

Mission to Moscow: 50 years on

UK to take a big ‘STEP’ to fusion electricity

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