Plasma Physics & Fusion
Fusion - Physics of a fundamental Energy Source Chart
The chart Fusion: Physics of a Fundamental Energy Source presents up-to-date information on plasma physics and fusion reactions, examples of solar and terrestrial fusion reactions, explains how Einstein’s famous E=mc2 describes the process of fusion and offers illustrations of everyday and exotic plasmas. Students will be able to compare the energy released in a variety of conversion processes, including combustion, fission and fusion.
These activities can be used to supplement the topics on the Teaching Chart, Fusion: Physics of a Fundamental Energy Source, produced by the Contemporary Physics Education Project (CPEP). Included are nine activities for high school or introductory college courses and three activities for middle school. Teachers may reproduce these activities for their classroom use as long as they include credit to CPEP.
Separate Teacher’s Notes for each activity include equipment information, background information and suggestions, expected results, and answers to the questions that are asked in the student activities. An appendix to the Teacher’s Notes shows the alignment of the activity with National Science Standard.
Resources
Teacher and student resources, as well as access to various education programs.
From Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Explore the exciting new world of fusion science through fun educational resources. Journey inside a plasma-confining tokamak, control plasma experiments online, or use the phsyics modules!
From the Coalition for Plasma Science.
This site from General Atomics, location of the DIII-D tokamak, has links to websites of Laboratories and Universities doing research in Fusion Science.
ITER is the international project to build the world’s largest tokamak.
The National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a leader in fusion research using intertial confinement.
Located in the UK, this is the home for the Joint European Torus (JET), currently the world’s largest operating tokamak.