Pppl.gov

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The domain pppl.gov is the official website of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), a United States Department of Energy national laboratory for fusion research. PPPL is located on the Forrestal Campus of Princeton University in Plainsboro, New Jersey. The laboratory's mission is to advance the understanding of plasma physics and to develop fusion energy as a safe, clean, and abundant source of energy.

PPPL was founded in 1951 as the Project Matterhorn, a joint venture between Princeton University and the Atomic Energy Commission. The laboratory's first director was Lyman Spitzer, Jr., who is considered one of the fathers of fusion research. Under Spitzer's leadership, PPPL developed the Stellarator, a type of fusion reactor that uses a twisted magnetic field to confine plasma.

In the 1960s and 1970s, PPPL played a major role in the development of the tokamak, another type of fusion reactor that uses a toroidal magnetic field to confine plasma. PPPL's tokamaks, including the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR), were among the most powerful in the world at the time.

In the 1980s and 1990s, PPPL began to focus on the development of spherical tokamaks, a smaller and more compact type of tokamak. PPPL's National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) was the first spherical tokamak to achieve a sustained plasma discharge.

Today, PPPL is a leading research center for fusion energy. The laboratory is home to a number of major experimental facilities, including the National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U), the Lithium Tokamak Experiment (LTX), and the Princeton Divertor Experiment (PDX). PPPL also has a strong theoretical program, and its researchers are involved in a wide range of fusion-related activities, including plasma physics, materials science, and engineering.

PPPL is a major contributor to the international effort to develop fusion energy as a safe, clean, and abundant source of energy. The laboratory's research is helping to advance the understanding of plasma physics and to develop the technologies that will be needed to build a fusion power plant.

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