Radhika Mishra

Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion, Poland

Title: Plasma and Nuclear Fusion: The boon about to fuel our lives

---

Biography

Radhika Mishra,currently doing my internship from Institute of Plass and Laser Micro fusion, since 1^stMarch, 2023. I have completed my B.Tech m Mody University of Science and Technology, India, in Nuclear Science and Technology, in May, 2022. In September, 2022, I went for MSc in Nuclear Energy Production and Industrial Applications from IMTA tlantique, where I received adirect admission into second year with fee scholarship.

As a school student around class 11, I was always inclined towards reading books written by Sir Stephen Hawking, giving rise to my interest towards this domain. Currently, I am working on the relevant code for tokamak called Tecxy, as a part of my internship. I do plan to further, go ahead with my Ph.D in this field and serve my country with the knowledge and experiences I gain.

Abstract

The plasma, according to the various sources, is the fourth state of matter and is essentially a very hot, ionized gas. Any ionized gas cannot be called a plasma, of course as there is always some small degree of ionization in any gas. As Sir Francis F.Chen puts: “A plasma is a quasineutral gas of charged and neutral particles which exhibits collective behavior”. Quasineutral indicates the overall neutrality due to equal amount of ions and electrons, and collective behaviour talks of motions that depend not only on local conditions but on the state of the plasma in remote regions, as well. These terms are characteristics of plasma, in addition to Debye length and resulting Debye shielding.

Plasma is what makes up the Sun and most of the Universe. It is so hot (millions of Kelvin) that it cannot be contained physically. Instead, magnetic confinement is used.

Surprisingly enough, plasma is the most plentiful form of matter in the Universe as our Universe is 99.9% plasma. A core challenge in nuclear fusion is to shape and maintain a high - temperature plasma within the tokamak vessel.

In this presentation, I intend to throw light on the most important topic of current times- “Nuclear fusion and its bottomless barrel of power”. Various projects around the world will also be highlighted , including my current work involving TCV (Tokamak a Configuration Variable) and the elephant in the room in this regard, ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor).