To create reliable, commercial nuclear fusion on Earth, scientists need to heat up plasma inside tokamak reactors to 150 million degrees Celsius—a temperature roughly 10 times that of the Sun’s core.

The exhaust heat generated by a fusing plasma in a commercial-scale reactor may not be as damaging to the vessel's innards as once thought, according to new research about escaping plasma particles.

This still image from a new simulation shows how plasma from the pedestal region is connected through the supposedly last confinement surface into the divertor plasma region. The long and thin lobes ...

This still image from a new simulation shows how plasma from the pedestal region is connected through the supposedly last confinement surface into the divertor plasma region. The long and thin lobes ...