A 'diverted' plasma pulse from our successful ST40 spherical tokamak physics campaign
Watch a ‘diverted’ plasma pulse from our latest successful ST40 campaign, which has helped advance our commercial fusion mission following a series of upgrades to our record-breaking ST40 spherical tokamak.
In a diverted configuration, the magnetically confined plasma is separated from the centre post and walls of the device and its exhaust is directed to a dedicated ‘divertor’ region that extracts heat and particles. This keeps the core plasma cleaner and significantly improves overall performance. The campaign, which ended at the end of September 2023, was focused on improving understanding and developing high-performance diverted plasma scenarios in a high field spherical tokamak.
This work is expanding our understanding and helping to further validate future power plant designs on our path to delivering clean, secure and affordable fusion energy.