The news of the recent successful plasma experiment at a nuclear fusion research facility in Germany went wild on social media, but a lot of people wondered what kind of sense it makes for a country with a nuclear phase-out to be conducting research in nuclear fusion. In fact, Germany is a leader in nuclear fusion in two ways. Craig Morris explains. For the first time ever worldwide, physicists from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald recently managed to use microwaves to create a plasma with a temperature of 80 million degrees Celsius. It lasted for a quarter of a second (press release). At that temperature, the materials used in the reactor would melt, so the plasma has to be suspended in midair magnetically. That description is admittedly simplistic; for a more in-depth (and enjoyable) explanation, I refer readers to the recent New Yorker article, whose title sums up the technology well: A star in a bottle. Obviously, a quarter of a second is not long; a future fusion powerplant would, of … Continue reading Germany – a nuclear fusion leader