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Spring and Summer 2014
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

An e-newsletter for the friends of the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, a national collaborative center for fusion and plasma research. 

- In This Issue -

Director Stewart Prager touts progress on NSTX-U

Lab Director Stewart Prager says PPPL has made "stellar” progress in the completion of the $94 million upgrade on the National Spherical Torus Experiment due to be completed by early next year. 

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Video makes learning about fusion fun

PPPL physicists appear as cartoon characters and hydrogen atoms fall in love in a new video by PhD Comics’ Jorge Cham filmed at the Laboratory that uses humor and imaginative animations to explain fusion energy. 

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New verification system could help nuclear disarmament

A recent article in Nature magazine describes a method developed by researchers at PPPL and Princeton University to verify nuclear weapons without delving into classified information. 

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$4.3 million grant will fund nanotechnology research

A $4.3 million grant will help PPPL researchers expand the study of how plasma can be used to create nanoparticles – particles so tiny they are measured in billionths of a meter – that are used to create everything from microchips to solar panels. 

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A live physics experiment you can access from 5 miles or 5,000 miles away

Students at a local high school are thrilled when they use a computer in their classroom to create a glowing, pink plasma in a PPPL laboratory five miles away. They were taking part in a live experiment that anyone can access from a computer anywhere in the world. 

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A day of science for Girl Scouts at STEM Fair

Some 240 Girl Scouts spend a Saturday at the Laboratory doing hands-on science and learning about robotics, cryogenics, inventing, and plasmas from more than 50 PPPL volunteers at a unique STEM Fair. 

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Prager will continue to lead PPPL

PPPL Director Stewart Prager, who has led the Laboratory for the past five years, agrees to continue in the position. 

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PPPL physicist wins Early Career award

PPPL physicist Brian Grierson wins the highly competitive, prestigious Early Career Research Program award along with a five-year $2.5 million grant, for his research into a process that is crucial in achieving high performance in fusion reactors like ITER, the huge international experiment in Cadarache, France. 

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Cheers for science at Young Women’s Conference

PPPL’s Young Women’s Conference gets 400 girls cheering for science after a day of hands-on science activities, exhibits, tours and talks at Princeton University. 

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PPPL in the news

PPPL made lots of headlines during the spring and early summer of 2014, most recently with more than two dozen articles about a paper in Nature on a new technology to verify nuclear weapons developed by researchers at PPPL and Princeton University that appeared in Science, the LA Times, The Times of Trenton, India.com and ! Wired, to name a few. There were several articles about PPPL’s Young Women’s Conference, including an editorial in The Star-Ledger; and articles on the first demonstration of the Remote Glow Discharge Experiment in local media and Smithsonian Magazinephotos in the Times of Trenton of a Girl Scout STEM Fair hosted by PPPL and many others. 

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