What is a tokamak? And is a spherical tokamak different?

Scientists are trying to replicate the conditions found in the centres of stars to make clean energy on Earth. A tokamak is the best way we have found to do this so far, although other approaches are also being tried and are making good progress. Here, Dr Melanie Windridge talks about the conditions we need for fusion and how we can get close to these conditions in tokamaks. Find out where the name “tokamak“ comes from and how they are able to trap hot fusion fuels using a combination of strong magnetic fields. Finally, hear how a ’spherical’ tokamak is different to an ordinary one, and what advantages this has that could help us make fusion power stations for clean, sustainable energy.