The Alfvén Lecture 2016 - "Fusion energy with a twist"

Hannes Alfvén, KTH pioneer in Space and Plasma physics, received the Nobel Prize in 1970. To honour his memory, KTH Space Center and the Departments of Space and Plasma Physics and Fusion Plasma Physics periodically arrange Alfvén Lectures on exciting topics, with highly renowned researchers that carry the science initiated by Alfvén further.

This year’s speaker: 

Professor Per Helander, Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, Greifswald, Germany
 

"Fusion energy with a twist"
In 1951, Lyman Spitzer, a legendary Princeton astrophysicist and later
father of the Hubble Space Telescope, suggested a way to achieve
controlled nuclear fusion. Inspired by Hannes Alfven's book "Cosmical
electrodynamics", he proposed to use a magnetic field to confine the
100-million-degree plasma needed for fusion reactions, but he added,
literally, a twist. He showed, surprisingly, that magnetic field lines can
be made to twist around each other and confine the fusion plasma in a
steady state. His idea is now put to a billion-euro test by the Max Planck
Society in the Wendelstein 7-X experiment, which has just started
operation. In this lecture, I will give a simple account of Spitzer's
insight and describe this latest experiment in the worldwide quest for fusion energy. 

See also attached flyer. (pdf 3,2 MB)

Welcome!