Spinning Fuel to achieve Fusion

Abstract:

A practical fusion reactor could revolutionize our energy economy, but remains stubbornly out of reach. A new strategy to boost fusion power in magnetically confined plasmas takes advantage of a decades-old idea, to spin the fuel. When the nuclear spins are aligned, many reactions are enhanced, making fusion more achievable. But keeping it spinning long enough in the chaotic plasma environment may be a challenge. I will describe theoretical calculations that predict that the fuel can be kept spinning, and new experiments designed to measure the spin lifetime.