Description

This article is from the Fusion FAQ, by Robert F. Heeter heeter1@llnl.gov with numerous contributions by others.

11 What is plasma physics, and how is it related to fusion?

Plasma physics is the area of physics which studies ionized
gases and their properties. In most conventional types of fusion
(muon-catalyzed fusion being the major exception), one must heat
the fusion fuel to extremely high temperatures. At these
temperatures, the fuel atoms collide so much and so hard that
many electrons are knocked loose from their atoms. The result
is a soup of ionized atoms and free electrons: a plasma.

In order to achieve the conditions required for controlled
fusion, an understanding of how plasmas behave (and particularly
how to confine and heat them) is often essential.

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