Metal cloud to protect fusion reactor walls
(PHYSorg.com Physics)

A thin vapour cloud in front of a liquid metal may be the solution to protecting the reactor walls of future fusion power plants to the extreme heat fluxes encountered. In Nature Communications, PhD candidate Stein van Eden and colleagues at DIFFER and Ghent University presents measurements of a vapour cloud catching and redistributing the energy from the incoming plasma in the reactor. The work indicates that liquid metal walls are a promising concept for future fusion reactors like DEMO.