Below is a simple illustration of how these tokamaks work. They operate by something called magnetic confinement. The basics of a tokamak is that there are two magnetic fields. One, called the toroidal field, is made from copper coils in the shape of a torus. (A torus is the donut-like shape seen in the image below.) The second magnetic field, called the poloidal field, is made by an electric current that flows in the hot plasma. These magnetic fields basically squeeze the plasma, made from deuterium and tritium fuel, to create fusion. The hot plasma can then create steam that can turn a turbine to create electrical power.
http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/art-163523/Tokamak-magnetic-confinement
A Torus
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c6/Simple_Torus.svg/310px-Simple_Torus.svg.png
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