Abstract: Magnetized plasmas—both in nature and in the laboratory—frequently erupt in sudden, dramatic events that release large amounts of energy and disrupt confinement. This poses a serious challenge for magnetic fusion concepts, as gigajoules of energy can be unleashed in fractions of a millisecond, potentially damaging structural components and reducing the operational lifetime of fusion devices. In this talk, the speaker will explore the instability mechanisms behind these events and demonstrate that plasmas are often metastable. Triggering such a metastable state provides a clear pathway to explosive behavior, a phenomenon that is evident in the so-called edge localized modes (ELMs) observed in fusion experiments. The talk will conclude with proposed strategies to mitigate or avoid these damaging explosive events.

Bio: Steven Cowley is a theoretical physicist and international authority on fusion energy. He’s laboratory director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, which is managed by Princeton University where Cowley is also professor of astrophysical sciences. He’s also chair of the Board of Trustees for the Faraday Institution. Prior to his current positions, Cowley was president of Corpus Christi College and professor of physics at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Cowley previously was chief executive officer of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority and head of the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy.