ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Spherical tokamak

So imagine you have a little ball that you want to squeeze really tight. But you're not using your hands, you're using magnetic fields. A spherical tokamak is a machine that can do that!

It's like a really big donut made out of metal. Inside the donut, there is gas that has been heated up super hot, like the sun. The gas is called a plasma.

But, the plasma doesn't want to stay in the donut shape. It wants to spill out. That's where the magnetic fields come in. The magnetic fields create a sort of cage to hold the plasma inside the donut.

But a spherical tokamak isn't just any donut-shaped machine. It's special because it's really squished together in the middle. Like if you took a regular donut and pushed the hole to the center of the donut. This makes the magnetic cage stronger and more efficient.

Scientists are studying spherical tokamaks because they want to find a way to make fusion energy. Fusion energy is like really clean energy, because it doesn't make pollution. It's like taking two tiny things, like atoms or particles, and smushing them together, which creates a whole lot of energy!

So, to sum it up, a spherical tokamak is a big donut made of metal that holds super hot gas (plasma) in the middle by using magnetic fields, and is used to study how to create fusion energy.