A Glass of Seawater

The concept of ignition in inertial confinement fusion is super important – we need to produce enough heat to ignite our fuel and get lots of fusion reactions (and therefore energy) out of it. We speak with Professor Riccardo Betti about the approaches to moving towards ignition, how you know it’s happened and what needs to be done before we can get there. 

The post S4E3 – Routes to Ignition appeared first on Fusion CDT.

UK nuclear fusion energy got a big budget boost last year as designs for a power plant prototype were commissioned – a project called STEP. We sit down with UKAEA CEO Ian Chapman tasked with overseeing it and dig into what it takes to turn fusion research from physics experiment to commercial reality.

The post S4E2 – STEPisode appeared first on Fusion CDT.

A second round on laser fusion energy ignition research! Here we discuss advanced ignition schemes and big laser facilities. We also get to have a closer look at what Phil, Will and Kate actually do.

The post S4E1 – Laser Fusion Schemes appeared first on Fusion CDT.

Magnets are mission critical to magnetic confinement nuclear fusion energy and find their way into laser fusion too. Understanding the strongest magnetic fields using near-absolute zero temperature materials science would be great. But we don’t. So here we talk about what we do know, how we control the world’s biggest superconducting magnets we have and where the physics research is going next!

The post S3-E8 Superconductors appeared first on Fusion CDT.

Nuclear energy expertise from fusion and fission combines in this episode to talk about the nuclear waste from fusion reactor designs. Where does it come from? How do we avoid making any? How do we manage the stockpile? We discuss how this key selling point for fusion energy informs our research – if the Chernobyl mini-series has you worried, let us explain how waste is dealt with!

The post S3-E7 Fusion Energy: Nuclear Waste Not, Want Not? appeared first on Fusion CDT.

Most of us have an impression of what student life is like but maybe not that of a PhD student. This episode we have Sam, Helen, Tiantian and Emma to shed some light on the secret life of a Physics PhD student, their experiences and what they’ve learnt along the way. We chat about the love/hate relationship with research and the scary potential of life away from academia!

The post S3-E6 A Day in the PhD Life appeared first on Fusion CDT.

How can we use plasma jets for propulsion? Scott’s been working on using fusion fuel as rocket technology for cubesats (satellites). We talk about Hall effect and photon thrusters too. Plasma fusion rocket science, it’s not exactly rocket science is it?

The post S3E5 – Plasma Thrusters for Space appeared first on Fusion CDT.

For our anniversary episode we sat down with Prof Jim Al-Khalili! We talked about science communication (scicomm) with him and Dr Lancaster – their motivation, experiences and how to talk about complex research topics like fusion energy. Every bit as good as Radio 4 ‘s The Life Scientific!

The post S3E4 – Jim Al-Khalili SciComm Special appeared first on Fusion CDT.

If you’ve been wondering why would we call ourselves a glass of seawater, you’re in for a treat. Today Bhavin, Tom and Michail discuss how much fuel for the fusion reaction can be taken from a glass of seawater. And how much energy that could produce. The answer may surprise you.

The post S3E3 – A Glass of Seawater? appeared first on Fusion CDT.

This time Will, Charlie, Kate and newcomer Chris M have gathered to talk about this year’s Nobel Prize Winner: Chirped Pulse Amplification. We break down exactly what this technological breakthrough was and why it was so important. Then we look to the future to consider what might be the next big step in high power laser science.

The post S3E2 – Nobel Prize: CPA explained appeared first on Fusion CDT.