The study of plasmas — gas composed of charged free particles and their collective effects — has gained importance worldwide due to their various applications in industry and as a future source of energy.
In Costa Rica, plasma’s importance is also recognized. An agreement made between the Costa Rican Institute of Technology (ITCR in Spanish) and the Research Center of Energy, Environment and Technology in Spain (CIEMAT in Spanish) seeks to allow Costa Rica to become an actor in the international plasma research program.
The Plasma Physics Group was created as an initiative of Dr. Victor Ivan Vargas Blanco, a Costa Rican scientist and doctor of plasma and nuclear fusion. This group aims to develop a project that contributes to the research carried out worldwide to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of nuclear fusion reactors as a source of alternative energy in the 21st century. As part of this program, the ITCR has studied the effect of electric fields in confinement, transporting of particles and plasma energy of the Spanish Stellarator TJ-II.