Magnets Can Move Plasmas Plasma does a great job of conducting electricity. Since magnets can affect matter that conducts electricity, magnets influence plasma in much the same way they work on an iron bar-they can move it without even touching it. Very powerful electromagnets are used to control the plasma in a Tokamak. These magnets, along with a powerful electrical current of up to several million amps, create a kind of “magnetic bottle” that confines the plasma to a doughnut shape, or torus. Can Plasmas Be Controlled? For over 50 years, scientists and engineers in many different countries have tried to create a fusion reactor that produces more energy than it consumes. All atoms have a dense nucleus (made up of protons and neutrons - orange and black or red and blue spheres in the figures below). Fission and fusion reactions are two ways a nucleus changes. Both reactions transform mass energy into kinetic energy as described by Einstein's famous equation, E=mc2. Fission produces lighter elements from heavier ones. Fusion makes heavier elements from lighter ones. Courtesy University of Wisconsin Nuclear Reactor Laboratory A fission reaction (see left figure above) occurs when heavy radioactive nuclei like uranium split apart or "decay" into lighter nuclei. The excess energy can be used to operate a nuclear power plant or in a more sinister way it can produce the incredible energy in a nuclear explosion.