The book is a presentation of the basic principles and main achievements in the field of nuclear fusion. It encompasses both magnetic and inertial confinements plus a few exotic mechanisms for nuclear fusion. The state-of-the-art regarding thermonuclear reactions, hot plasmas, tokamaks, laser-driven compression and future reactors is given.

Controlled thermonuclear fusion is one of the possible candidates for long term energy sources which will be indispensable for our highly technological society. However, the physics and technology of controlled fusion are extremely complex and still require a great deal of research and development before fusion can be a practical energy source. For producing energy via controlled fusion a deuterium-tritium gas has to be heated to temperatures of a few 100 Million °c corres ponding to about 10 keV. For net energy gain, this hot plasma has to be confined at a certain density for a certain time One pro mising scheme to confine such a plasma is the use of i~tense mag netic fields. However, the plasma diffuses out of the confining magnetic surfaces and impinges on the surrounding vessel walls which isolate the plasma from the surrounding air. Because of this plasma wall interaction, particles from the plasma are lost to the walls by implantation and are partially reemitted into the plasma. In addition, wall atoms are released and can enter the plasma. These wall atoms or impurities can deteriorate the plasma performance due to enhanced energy losses through radiation and an increase of the required magnetic pressure or a dilution of the fuel in the plasma. Finally, the impact of the plasma and energy on the wall can modify and deteriorate the thermal and mechanical pro perties of the vessel walls.

This book is a primer on the interplay between plasma and materials in a fusion reactor, so-called plasma–materials interactions (PMIs), highlighting materials and their influence on plasma through PMI. It aims to demonstrate that a plasma-facing surface (PFS) responds actively to fusion plasma and that the clarifying nature of PFS is indispensable to understanding the influence of PFS on plasma. It describes the modern insight into PMI, namely, relevant feedback to plasma performance from plasma-facing material (PFM) on changes in a material surface by plasma power load by radiation and particles, contrary to a conventional view that unilateral influence from plasma on PFM is dominant in PMI. There are many books and reviews on PMI in the context of plasma physics, that is, how plasma or plasma confinement works in PMI. By contrast, this book features a materials aspect in PMI focusing on changes caused by heat and particle load from plasma: how PFMs are changed by plasma exposure and then, accordingly, how the changed PFM interacts with plasma.

The primary objectives of this book are, firstly, to present the essential theoretical background needed to understand recent fusion research and, secondly, to describe the current status of fusion research for graduate students and senior undergraduates. It will also serve as a useful reference for scientists and engineers working in the related fields. In Part I, Plasma Physics, the author explains the basics of magneto-hydrodynamics and kinetic theory in a simple and compact way and, at the same time, covers important new topics for fusion studies such as the ballooning representation, instabilities driven by energetic particles, and various plasma models for computer simulations. Part II, Controlled Nuclear Fusion, attempts to review the "big picture" in fusion research. Mathematical derivations are comprehensively explained to better enable readers to later concentrate on the physics. All important phenomena and technologies are addressed, with a particular emphasis on the topics of most concern in current research.

There has been an increase in interest worldwide in fusion research over the last decade and a half due to the recognition that a large number of new, environmentally attractive, sustainable energy sources will be needed to meet ever increasing demand for electrical energy. Based on a series of course notes from graduate courses in plasma physics and fusion energy at MIT, the text begins with an overview of world energy needs, current methods of energy generation, and the potential role that fusion may play in the future. It covers energy issues such as the production of fusion power, power balance, the design of a simple fusion reactor and the basic plasma physics issues faced by the developers of fusion power. This book is suitable for graduate students and researchers working in applied physics and nuclear engineering. A large number of problems accumulated over two decades of teaching are included to aid understanding.

The science of magnetically confined plasmas covers the entire spectrum of physics from classical and relativistic electrodynamics to quantum mechanics. During the last sixty years of research, our initial primitive understanding of plasma physics has made impressive progress thanks to a variety of experiments — from tabletop devices with plasma temperatures of a few thousands of degrees and confinement times of less than 100 microseconds, to large tokamaks with plasma temperatures of up to five hundred million degrees and confinement times approaching one second. We discovered that plasma confinement is impaired by a variety of instabilities leading to turbulent processes with scales ranging from the plasma size to a few millimeters. Understanding these phenomena, which have slowed down progress towards a fusion reactor, requires the use of very sophisticated diagnostic tools, many of which employ electromagnetic waves.The primary objective of this book is to discuss the fundamental physics upon which the application of electromagnetic waves to the study of magnetically confined plasmas is based.