The Vacuum System

Creating and maintaining the ultra-high vacuum a plasma needs.

Role

Ultra-high vacuum

Method

Cryopumping

A fusion plasma must sit inside an ultra-high vacuum so that stray gas does not cool or contaminate it. Cryopumps and roughing systems pump the vessel to a very low base pressure before and during operation.

The vacuum system is standard high-vacuum engineering scaled up, and is not among the design's binding gates.