Tokamak

A toroidal device that uses magnetic fields to confine hot plasma for controlled nuclear fusion research. Its plasma current helps create the magnetic field that stabilizes confinement.

Magnetic confinement fusion: A fusion approach that uses magnetic fields to hold hot plasma away from material surfaces. Tokamaks are the best-known devices built around this approach.
Nuclear fusion: A nuclear reaction in which light atomic nuclei combine into heavier nuclei, releasing energy in some reactions. Tokamaks aim to sustain fusion reactions in a confined plasma.
Andrei Sakharov: A Soviet physicist whose work included the theoretical foundations of the tokamak. Sakharov helped develop the magnetic-confinement ideas behind the early design.
Stellarator: A toroidal magnetic-confinement device that uses complex external coils to twist field lines. Unlike a tokamak, a stellarator does not rely on a large plasma current for its helical field.
Tokamak disruption: A rapid loss of plasma confinement and current in a tokamak, often producing intense loads on the vessel. Predicting and mitigating disruptions is essential for protecting large tokamak components.
Plasma current: An electric current flowing through ionized gas, or plasma. The current in a tokamak plasma generates part of the confining magnetic field.
Plasma: An ionized gas containing free electrons and ions that collectively respond to electromagnetic fields. Tokamak fuel becomes plasma at temperatures where magnetic confinement can act on charged particles.
Igor Tamm: A Soviet physicist who worked with Andrei Sakharov on controlled fusion research. Tamm and Sakharov proposed the configuration that became the tokamak.
Inertial confinement fusion: A fusion approach that compresses fuel rapidly with intense energy pulses rather than confining it magnetically. It pursues controlled fusion without a continuously confined tokamak plasma.
Turbulent transport: The movement of particles and heat caused by chaotic fluctuations in a fluid or plasma. It often limits tokamak energy confinement beyond predictions from classical transport.

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