Understanding the turbulence in plasmas

It has been a joke for a long time that practical fusion power is still some 20 years away.

Practical, self-sustaining fusion reactions have been difficult to achieve due to a simple phenomenon:Plasma, a superhot, electrically charged gas that circulates inside a fusion reactor, can lose much of its heat due to turbulence.

Because of this, the plasma is unable to attain the temperatures necessary to overcome the electrical repulsion that exists between atomic nuclei, which in turn prevents those nuclei from fusing together.However, scientists must first comprehend that turbulence before they can control it.