Principles and Challenges of Controlled Fusion Dr. Rajesh Maingi November 25, Online
Dr. Maingi is a researcher at the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab and the presentation was on nuclear fusion. He discussed how it works on a physical level, why it is important, and why it is difficult to achieve. The main challenge is finding the right materials to use. Fusion requires a high amount of heat and plasma so you need a material that contains the energy and heat generated without breaking down. There are multiple ways to heat up gas in order to start fusion including inducing a high current, wave heating like in microwaves, and a method called neutral beams.
I found the main points of the presentation very convincing. Dr. Maingi has a lot of experience with fusion all around the world and sounds extremely knowledgeable. He mentions the different locations around the world where fusion is being researched and tested. He does a great job of making a complicated and highly technical process approachable but didn’t act as though the audience was uneducated. Dr. Maingi makes it very clear that working in nuclear fusion is a possible and growing field. He specifically mentions that students graduating in the next four years are at the perfect time to complete current in progress projects. It is clear that despite the fact that nuclear fusion is a huge engineering challenge, we are able to overcome it with hard work, and we’ll be able to do it in our lifetimes.