The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will be awarding the Nuclear Fusion Journal Prize to the Alcator group, on their article about fusion research at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center – “I-mode: an H-mode energy confinement regime with L-mode particle transport in Alcator C-Mod.”  As reported by the MIT news in the article “MIT fusion research paper earns Nuclear Fusion Journal Award:”

Hailed by the publishers as “groundbreaking,” the 2010 paper describes an improved energy confinement regime for magnetic fusion devices, I-mode, as studied on Alcator C-Mod, a compact, high-field divertor tokamak.

When first discovered, I-mode could only be maintained within a small operational power window to avoid the more conventional H-modes (high-confinement modes), which can have unacceptable impurity accumulation and often result in high power loading on reactor vessel walls.

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