Is anyone on physicsforums doing research in nuclear fusion energy

[FrancisClinton]

I am an electrical engineering student doing my third year. I am interested in doing research in making fusion energy a commercial energy source by doing research in current techniques and also interested in creating new techniques for making fusion process continuous and efficient than current techniques. I don't know how to start my career for achieving my aim so i request researchers from fusion energy to help me .It will be a great help for me.
Thanks

 

[the_wolfman]

I study nuclear fusion. A graduate degree, usually a PhD, is often necessary to study nuclear fusion. Getting into graduate school is an important step for you. I can recommend a number of good schools if you are in the USA. I also know a few good European schools... but here my knowledge is limited. When considering different schools you should think about what you want to do. Do you want to run experiments, do theory, or computation? Are you interested in magnetic fusion or inertial fusion?

Are you finishing up your third year or are you about to start your third year? If its the later I highly suggest looking into a summer internship between your third and fourth years. Again I can recommend some places depending on where you are from.

 

[Fusiontron]

I just tried to get into graduate school for fusion/applied plasmas (and also for fission reactors) and failed. I recommend you apply to 10-15 programs for fusion. Funding is very low right now in the US due to the recession and also funds are moving from domestic projects to ITER. So be ready to put out a lot of money for the application process to increase your odds.

 

[FrancisClinton]

I study nuclear fusion. A graduate degree, usually a PhD, is often necessary to study nuclear fusion. Getting into graduate school is an important step for you. I can recommend a number of good schools if you are in the USA. I also know a few good European schools... but here my knowledge is limited. When considering different schools you should think about what you want to do. Do you want to run experiments, do theory, or computation? Are you interested in magnetic fusion or inertial fusion?

Are you finishing up your third year or are you about to start your third year? If its the later I highly suggest looking into a summer internship between your third and fourth years. Again I can recommend some places depending on where you are from.

I am interested in doing research in making fusion energy a commercial energy source by doing research in current techniques and also interested in creating new techniques for making fusion process continuous and efficient than current techniques. I am in India and i am going to complete my 3rd year , in my country there is no direct program for fusion but they come as a part in nuclear engineering curriculum , and also if i want to do research, i can do only in the institute of plasma research ,the main research going on the institute is magnetic confinement. First and foremost thing is i don't have any knowledge in fusion so i want to get a graduate program which teach me fusion along with the design of reactors so only i can able to select my research specifically. Colleges in US and Europe also is ok for me but the problem id how to convince them that i am a better candidate since i have zero background in fusion.

 

[interhacker]

A good start might be to apply for a PhD in a related field e.g Nuclear Physics or Nuclear Engineering.

 

[Khashishi]

I'm not sure where you live, but if you are in USA, funding for fusion is really tight and there aren't many opportunities. There are only a few tokamaks and stellarators in the USA, and Alcator C-Mod could be shut down at any moment. There is a lot of competition for limited resources, so you really have to be extremely competent to succeed. The US senate just passed a bill to withdraw US from the ITER project (again!), so the political will isn't there. Ultimately, we are dependent on government research funding since there is no private funding of fusion, so it's a good field if you like being suffocated.