How to Bottle a Star

Speaker: Dr Samuel Humphrey-Baker, Department of Materials, Imperial College London
Series: Cambridge Physics Centre Lectures

Fusion reactors aim to recreate the power of the Sun on Earth. They produce enormous amounts of energy from superheated plasmas confined using the most powerful magnets ever developed. But alongside this promise comes a major challenge: much of the energy from the fusion reaction is carried by uncharged particles called neutrons, which can irreversibly damage the magnets. This talk explores how my research designs materials with exceptional neutron-shielding capability, allowing fusion reactors to operate more safely. We will discover what happens inside the shielding material when neutrons are absorbed, how this can change its performance over time, and how we can engineer its arrangement of crystal defects (microstructure) to have a longer service life. Along the way, I hope to highlight the vital role that materials science plays in making fusion energy possible.