How to Catch Plasma

Since early childhood everyone knows that substance can exist in three states: solid, liquid and gas. A perfect example of it is ordinary water. We can observe it in all the three states in our daily life (especially in a kitchen). However, there exists another state which is called plasma…

The Novosibirsk Institute of Nuclear Physics is one of the world’s leaders in studying plasma. They have some very interesting setups, so-called “plasma traps”. Let’s see how they work and what they are needed for.

The substance in a plasma state is gaseous but gets an additional property – electrical conductivity. That means a current is able to pass through it.

And this may be very dangerous! If the air was in a state of plasma, we would easily get an electric shock standing near a simple plug or any other source of energy (even without touching it!).

But this property of plasma may be effectively used for generating energy. That’s for plasma traps were created. They allow to study the properties of plasma, its behavior and possible ways of its keeping.

There is a very high radiation level near these machines, so all the workers must use dosimeters here.

Now these traps are purely experimental. But in the future they may become an important part of our lives…