Being on-site, Watkins helps maintain the equipment. Although remote operation doesn't eliminate travel, Buchenauer estimates that he'll save about three weeks of time each year. The increased flexibility has also allowed him to work on other projects. Remote experimentation requires both data acquisition and analysis. His technician Josh Whaley wrote the control and acquisition software for the data set.
Fusion occurs when two hydrogen atoms are joined to become a heavier helium atom.
This process powers the sun, and may one day provide a net energy gain in man- made power plants. Buchenauer is studying how to divert the plasma inside the tokamak so components of the reactor walls don't vaporize and consume energy during the reaction. The DIII-D is the largest tokamak in the United States with a diverter structure, and supports development of the planned International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. The wider bandwidth available on the ESnet makes this avenue of the information superhighway nearly the next best thing to being there, since it accommodates the audio and visual transmission requirements of video conferencing. It's only now being recognized as useful.