Researchers from the Department of Applied Science, UC Davis, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are developing a fuel-injection system for a nuclear fusion power plant. Nuclear fusion is the process that drives the sun, and could theoretically produce vast amounts of energy by fusing hydrogen isotopes to form helium. In practice, a controlled, self-sustaining fusion reaction has proved difficult to achieve despite decades of research, said David Hwang, who leads the research team. The researchers work on a doughnut-shaped device called a tokamak. The tokamak uses powerful magnetic fields to contain plasma at the temperatures needed to achieve nuclear fusion -- around 100 million degrees Celsius. Hwang likens fuel for hydrogen fusion to wet wood: it needs high temperatures to make it burn. One significant problem is how to put new fuel in to keep the reaction going, said Hwang. The accelerated plasma injector takes a magnetically contained pellet of plasma fuel, similar to a smoke ring, and uses magnetic acceleration to fire it into the center of the fusion plasma, where the temperature is highest. The team has conducted experiments on a small-scale device, the Davis Diverted Tokamak located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and is hoping to conduct experiments on a larger facility at the University of Wisconsin. The research is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. More information: .