Project Matterhorn
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| Established | 1961 |
|---|---|
| Budget | $75 million (2012) |
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Field of research
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Plasma physics |
| Vice president | David J. McComas, Vice-President for PPPL |
| Director | Dr. Richard J. Hawryluk (interim) |
| Address | 100 Stellarator Road, Princeton New Jersey |
| Location |
Plainsboro Township, New Jersey, United States 40°20′56″N 74°36′08″W / 40.348825°N 74.602183°WCoordinates: 40°20′56″N 74°36′08″W / 40.348825°N 74.602183°W |
| 08536 | |
| Campus | Forrestal Campus |
|
Operating agency
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Princeton University |
| Website | www |
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory for plasma physics and nuclear fusion science. Its primary mission is research into and development of fusion as an energy source.
PPPL grew out of the top secret Cold War project to control thermonuclear reactions, called Project Matterhorn. In 1961, after declassification, Project Matterhorn was renamed the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
PPPL is located on Princeton University's Forrestal Campus in Plainsboro Township, New Jersey. This is some distance from the main Princeton campus, but the lab has a Princeton address.
In 1950, John Wheeler was setting up a secret H-bomb research lab at Princeton University. Lyman Spitzer, Jr., an avid mountaineer, was aware of this program and suggested the name "Project Matterhorn".
Spitzer, a professor of Astronomy, had for many years been involved in the study of very hot rarefied gases in interstellar space. While leaving for a ski trip to Aspen in February 1951, his father called and told him to read the front page of the New York Times. The paper had a story about claims released the day before in Argentina that a relatively unknown German scientist named Ronald Richter had achieved nuclear fusion in his Huemul Project. Spitzer ultimately dismissed these claims, and they were later proven erroneous, but the story got him thinking about fusion. While riding the chairlift at Aspen, he struck upon a new concept to confine a plasma for long periods so it could be heated to fusion temperatures. He called this concept the stellarator.
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Wikipedia