00:02While laser fusion constantly generates a short-lived plasma at high pressure,
00:07magnetic fusion aims to permanently confine the plasma,
00:11a gas that is hundreds of millions of degrees hot.
00:16Because no material in the world can withstand the enormous heat of the plasma,
00:21it is kept in suspension.
00:23Inside a reactor, the plasma runs in circles without touching the walls.
00:28This is made possible by magnets.
00:31This requires very strong coils around the torus, which generate a magnetic field,
00:36and then you need a second magnetic field to stabilize the plasma,
00:41which must be perpendicular to the first magnetic field.
00:45The first magnetic field is generated by the ring-shaped coils.
00:50The second is created when a transformer column causes an electric current in the plasma.
00:56The magnetic cage is finished, the so-called tokamak.
01:02If you combine both magnetic fields, you get a stable plasma.
01:06Another advantage, the current heats up the plasma.
01:10This is why the tokamak was originally the preferred concept.
01:14The tokamak concept has been researched for the longest time.
01:19It experienced a breakthrough at the end of the 1990s.
01:25It lasted only a flash, but its significance will be felt by future generations.
01:33The team at the fusion plant south of Oxford is celebrating the fact that more fusion energy was released in
01:40the experiment than ever before.
01:42A milestone, even if it was a third less than they had put into the plasma of the tokamak.
01:48.
01:49.
01:49.
01:52You
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