Princeton Lab Lifts Fusion Wall Purity to 87% With 1,472°F Plasma Cleaning
Updated
Updated · Interesting Engineering · Aug 5
Princeton Lab Lifts Fusion Wall Purity to 87% With 1,472°F Plasma Cleaning
2 articles · Updated · Interesting Engineering · Aug 5
Summary
Pure metallic tungsten on contaminated reactor-wall samples rose from 0% to 87% after Princeton-led researchers treated them inside a vacuum chamber with neon plasma and 800C heat.
Carbon and oxygen had been clogging the pores of tungsten tiles that hold liquid lithium, disrupting the protective wall system fusion reactors use to survive extreme temperatures.
Neon ions knocked surface contaminants off the metal while heat drove deeper impurities outward, making the combined treatment markedly more effective than plasma alone.
Tests in the LTX-beta chamber also cleared the metal's internal channels, letting operators clean liquid-metal wall components after sealing the reactor instead of recontaminating them during assembly.
The result addresses a practical obstacle for commercial fusion systems, which need porous tungsten and flowing lithium to protect reactor interiors without frequent disassembly.