Although oxygen is required to sustain life, oxygen sucks the life out of fusion by radiating away too much power from the high-temperature plasma. Accordingly, great efforts are expended to reduce the oxygen found in fusion facilities. Surprisingly, recent laboratory experiments and atomistic simulations have found that the oxygen bound by lithium at the walls of fusion devices plays a key role in improving plasma performance.
Although oxygen is required to sustain life, oxygen sucks the life out of fusion by radiating away too much power from the high-temperature plasma. Accordingly, great efforts are expended to reduce the oxygen found in fusion facilities. Surprisingly, recent laboratory experiments and atomistic simulations have found that the oxygen bound by lithium at the walls of fusion devices plays a key role in improving plasma performance.
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