With high marks in maintaining purchasing standards, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) recently received the 2007 Achievement of Excellence in Procurement Award from the National Purchasing Institute (NPI). Rich Hawryluk of West Windsor is the deputy director of the project.##M:[more]##
PPPL, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and managed by Princeton University, is a collaborative national center for science and innovation leading to an attractive fusion energy source. Fusion is the process that powers the sun and the stars.
In the interior of stars, matter is converted into energy by the fusion, or joining, of the nuclei of light atoms to form heavier elements. At PPPL, physicists use a magnetic field to confine plasma, a hot, gaseous state of matter used as the fuel to produce fusion energy. Scientists hope eventually to use fusion energy for the generation of electricity.
