Real life-changing inventions developed from fusion research

Medical/HealthEnvironmental cleanup/Safe destruction of surplus weapons

Technology

Transportation/Pulse power

Improvements in materials

Contributions to science

• MRI-Magnetic resonance imaging• Laser surgery and tissue welding• Diabetes treatment (continuous glucose monitor)• Skin disinfection• Tumor reduction• Wound care, including on battlefields• Dentistry (imaging, treatment for tooth decay and periodontal disease)• Cancer fighting (proton beam therapy)• Laser cavity drilling• Medical isotope separation and production• X-ray catheter• Blood clot treatment• Grain sterilization and milk pasteurization (pulsed-power gammas)

• Toxic waste destruction * Microwave cleaning and contamination removal• Electron beam destruction of chemical waste• Reducing auto pollution (microplasmatron fuel convertor)• Smokestack emissions monitor• Reducing vehicular pollution (fuel convertor)• Corrosion monitor for furnaces• Plasma torch• Waste vitrification• Isotope separation• Plasma-assisted catalyst

• Advanced semiconductor chips and integrated circuits• Plasma electronics - including plasma flat-panel TVs• Microwave plasma light source

• Micropower impulse (hand-held) radar• Plasma propulsion• Superconductivity• Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)• Superconducting cyclotrons for isotope production and neutron radiography• Superconducting synchrotrons for X-ray lithography• Magnetic separation of materials (e.g. clay)• Defense: Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) for aircraft carriers

• MagLev trains• IGBT power conversion units for trains, buses, wind turbines and earth movers• Space propulsion (magneto plasma thrusters)

• Optical coatings• Ion implantation for hardening of materials• Ultraviolet drying of inks, coatings and adhesives• Microwave and RF sintering of ceramics• Production of synthetic diamond films

• Polymer films• Alloys• Ceramics• Superconductors• High heat flux materials

• High-performance supercomputers and networking communications• Computational science• High-density matter physics • Atomic physics and X-ray lasers• Space plasma physics• Nonlinear dynamics and chaos• Plasma physics

SPINOFFS FROM FUSION AND PLASMA RESEARCH

Fusion and plasma research leading to important discoveries

Launching a new era in Naval aviation

Anti-terrorism technology

Saving the public from food poisoning

Providing 10-times the drilling power

Cutting the cost of carbon fiber

World’s most compact superconducting cable

Making cancer treatment more available

New discoveries from fastest X-ray camera

Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) is now replacing the Navy’s steam catapults on aircraft carriers. Using the electro-magnetic system will lower operating costs and improve catapult performance. The enabling innovation by General Atomics came

from fusion research development of precision control of sequencing magnets. For EMALS, that precision enables enormous propulsion capacity and expands the range of manned and unmanned aircraft that carriers can now launch.

Princeton researchers developed the MINDS anti-terrorism device: Miniature Integrated Nuclear Detection System. It’s used to scan moving vehicles, luggage, cargo vessels, and the like for specific nuclear signatures associated with materials employed in radiolog-ical weapons. The device developed by Princeton Plasma Physics

Laboratory can be used to detect transportation of unauthorized nuclear materials.It works by detecting X-rays, gamma rays and neutrons. Radionuclides can be recog-nized and differentiated from one another since each has a distinctive energy signature or fingerprint. The device is already

in operation at a U.S. military base and at a major rail and bus com-muter center – technology working to make America safer.

Oak Ridge National Lab researchers developed a more efficient system for microwave plasma processing of carbon fiber at half the cost. Potential commercial applications include:• Automotive: Lighter weight material can improve vehicle performance• Wind turbine blades: Enabling longer and lighter weight blades to increase efficiency• Electronics and consumer goods: Ability to strengthen and cut weight for components of communications electronics and sporting goods.

Oak Ridge researchers worked with industry to develop high-temperature superconducting power cables. The technology can help electric utilities deliver more power with greater voltage control at high-current densities and fewer transmission losses. Result: Reduced need for additional transmission towers or new underground rights-of-way.

Developing advanced super- conducting coils for fusion research at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center has led to important innovation in cancer treatment through proton beam radiotherapy. In this medical application, proton beams can be more precisely shaped to the size and thickness of tumors and leave surrounding tissue unharmed. MIT researchers developed a compact, superconducting, high-field synchrocyclotron that is about 40-times smaller, lighter (about 25 tons) and an order of magnitude less expensive than conventional magnet technology machinery, enabling more hospitals to provide the therapy. They are working on reducing the weight by almost another order of magnitude, by eliminating all iron from the design.

DIXI captures an image in 5 picoseconds or 5 trillionths of a second. The General Atomics-developed technology is now installed on the National Ignition Facility laser and successfully capturing high-resolution images of inertial confinement fusion. DIXI’s eye is now revealing new features of the dynamics never before seen by researchers, a vital technology aiding scientific progress toward ignition.

Princeton Plasma Physics Lab fusion researchers working with the USDA have developed a novel technique for rapidly pasteurizing eggs right in the shell – in a fraction of the time of conventional methods. And in a major breakthrough, Princeton’s technology works without damaging the delicate egg white. The process could reduce illnesses from egg-borne salmonella bacteria, a widespread public health concern. The new method uses radio frequency (RF) energy to transmit heat through the shell.

During the course of plasma re-search, MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center developed millime-ter-wave sources so powerful they could increase deep hard rock penetration rates, going deeper than current methods. Deep drilling into hard rock is done to access geothermal energy resources and

natural gas, to mine precious metals and to explore nuclear waste storage options – a difficult and expensive process. MIT-pioneered millimeter wave drilling could help foster sustainable engineered geothermal systems, contributing to the world’s energy needs.

Vital innovation from research labs to reality

AudibleAlarm

NuclearMaterialsDetector

031215