A Trip to the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab

Sixteen seniors in Mr. Sotelo’s AP Physics 2 class visited the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab (PPPL) in Princeton, New Jersey on Wednesday, April 19.

The visit consisted of a tour of the facilities of the nuclear fusion reactor called "Stellerator" which is a joint initiative between Princeton University and the American government to develop nuclear fusion for power generation in the next few decades. The initiative has many technological and scientific challenges, but progress continues to be made to develop a relatively inexpensive, environmentally sustainable and safe way to generate electricity.

We watched a video and had a discussion with the tour guide about nuclear fusion. Then we visited a hall with small size models of the stellerator (plasma chamber), visited the control room for the actual stellerator and toured the actual facilities in which the stellerator works. We concluded the visit with a number of amazing demonstrations of the properties of plasma and other electromagnetic phenomena.

This was an end of the year field trip, which is one of the requirements of the course, and based on this visit, the students will choose a final project on which they will work for the rest of the school year after they take the AP Exam on May 3rd.

To learn more about the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, visit their website: www.pppl.gov