FPN07-18

Freidberg Publishes Fusion Text

March 20, 2007

Jeff Freidberg, Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT, has published a new text, "Plasma Physics and Fusion Energy," based on a series of lecture notes from graduate courses in plasma physics and fusion energy at MIT. The 671 page text is published by Cambridge University Press (www.cambridge.org). Freidberg states, in the Preface, "it is my hope that the book will help educate the next generation of fusion researchers, an important goal in view of the international decision to build ITER, the world's first reactor-scale, burning plasma experiment."

The book begins with a discussion of the world energy situation and the potential role of fusion. It then treats the basics of the fusion reaction physics and the design of "a simple magnetic fusion reactor." Inertial fusion is not treated in this text.

The book then treats the "plasma physics of fusion energy," including single-particle behavior in magnetic fields, fluid models, MHD equilibrium and stability. A variety of magnetic fusion confinement concepts are then described.

After a discussion of transport physics, heating and current drive, the book ends with a discussion of "the future of fusion research," including the current status of plasma physics research, ITER and a demonstration power reactor, which Freidberg acknowledges "is clearly decades away."