Watch Plasma Erupt in Full Color Inside a Fusion Reactor at 16,000 FPS

Tokamak Energy's ST40 fusion reactor has been filmed with a high-speed color camera recording at 16,000 fps, capturing deuterium plasma blooming into brilliant pink and lithium tumbling into the maelstrom as vivid green-yellow streaks. The high-speed imaging helps researchers investigate heat exhaust, one of the key problems shaping future spherical tokamak power plant design.

Plasma fusion has a long way to go before practical application; researchers are still investigating core technical challenges like divertor heat load management.