Articles tagged with "plasma-confinement"
Commonwealth Fusion Systems installs reactor magnet, lands deal with Nvidia
Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) announced the installation of the first of 18 powerful magnets for its Sparc fusion reactor, a demonstration device aimed to be operational by next year. These 24-ton, D-shaped magnets will generate a 20 tesla magnetic field—about 13 times stronger than a typical MRI machine—by being cooled to -253˚C to safely conduct over 30,000 amps of current. The magnets will be arranged in a doughnut shape within a 75-ton stainless steel cryostat, designed to confine and compress plasma heated to over 100 million degrees Celsius. The goal is for the plasma to release more energy than is required to heat and compress it, potentially unlocking nearly limitless clean energy. To optimize Sparc’s performance and accelerate development, CFS is collaborating with Nvidia and Siemens to create a digital twin of the reactor. This digital twin will integrate various simulations and real-time data, allowing the team to run experiments and adjust parameters virtually before applying them
energyfusion-powersuperconducting-magnetsdigital-twinclean-energyplasma-confinementCommonwealth-Fusion-SystemsThea Energy reveals Helios fusion plant design for 390 megawatt output
Thea Energy, a New Jersey-based company, has revealed the preconceptual design of Helios, a stellarator-based nuclear fusion power plant aimed at producing 390 megawatts of electricity. Unlike most fusion efforts that focus on tokamak reactors, Helios uses a stellarator design featuring 12 large magnets of four different shapes and 324 smaller magnets to confine and fine-tune plasma. Thea Energy’s innovation lies in employing smaller, identical magnets controlled by sophisticated software and artificial intelligence (AI) to manage plasma confinement and compensate for manufacturing imperfections, avoiding the need for ultra-precise magnet fabrication. Helios is designed to generate 1.1 gigawatts of heat, converted to electricity via steam turbines, with a capacity factor of 88 percent due to an 84-day maintenance cycle every two years and a first wall designed for a 15-year service life. The company aims to reduce energy costs from $150 to $60 per megawatt-hour as more reactors
energynuclear-fusionfusion-power-plantstellarator-designclean-energyartificial-intelligenceplasma-confinementThea Energy previews Helios, its pixel-inspired fusion power plant
Thea Energy is developing a novel fusion power plant design called Helios, which aims to overcome key challenges in fusion energy production by using a unique approach to magnetic confinement. Unlike traditional stellarators that rely on complex, irregularly shaped magnets difficult to mass-produce, Thea’s design employs arrays of small, identical superconducting magnets controlled individually by specialized software. This "virtual" stellarator concept allows the company to rapidly iterate on magnet designs and use software to compensate for manufacturing and installation imperfections, potentially reducing the high costs and precision demands that have hindered fusion power development. Thea’s control system, based on electromagnetic physics and enhanced with AI through reinforcement learning, has demonstrated resilience even when magnets were deliberately misaligned or made from defective materials. This flexibility could enable the construction of fusion reactors without the extreme precision typically required, lowering barriers to commercialization. The company has shared detailed physics and design information publicly and is working toward building a working prototype. If successful, Thea’s approach could significantly reduce the
energyfusion-powerstellaratorsuperconducting-magnetsclean-energypower-plantplasma-confinementGoogle-backed US nuclear fusion firm partners with UK team for neutral beam tech
TAE Technologies, a US private nuclear fusion company backed by Google, has partnered with the UK’s Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) to form a joint venture called TAE Beam UK. This collaboration aims to commercialize proprietary neutral beam particle accelerator technology, which is crucial for nuclear fusion energy production, as well as adapt it for medical applications like cancer therapeutics, food safety, and homeland security. Operating out of UKAEA’s Culham Campus, the venture will receive a $7.4 million equity investment from UKAEA, complemented by significant funding from TAE Technologies. The joint venture plans to deliver its first short-pulse neutral beams within 18 to 24 months, pending regulatory approvals. Neutral beam technology is essential in fusion reactors for heating and stabilizing plasma by injecting high-energy neutral hydrogen atoms that can penetrate magnetic fields. TAE Technologies currently uses eight such beams in its fusion machines, enabling a smaller and more cost-effective reactor design. The technology has also been adapted by TAE’s
energynuclear-fusionneutral-beam-technologyplasma-confinementparticle-acceleratorTAE-TechnologiesUKAEAChina's BEST fusion reactor moves closer to power generation goal
China's Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak (BEST) fusion reactor has reached a significant construction milestone with the installation of the Dewar base, a massive vacuum-insulated vessel critical for maintaining the cryogenic temperatures needed by the reactor’s superconducting magnets. Weighing over 400 tonnes and measuring 18 meters in diameter, the Dewar base is the largest vacuum component ever produced in China’s fusion research field. This installation lays the foundation for assembling the reactor’s core systems and is essential for confining plasma heated to over 100 million degrees Celsius, a key step toward achieving the project’s goal of generating electricity from fusion by 2030, initially aiming to power a light bulb. This progress places China’s BEST reactor among the leading global fusion projects, which aim not only to sustain fusion plasma but also to convert fusion energy into practical electricity generation. The development occurs alongside international efforts such as the ITER project in France, where superconducting wire testing and advanced diagnostic tools are advancing fusion research
energynuclear-fusionsuperconducting-magnetsfusion-reactorpower-generationcryogenicsplasma-confinementUS supercomputer refines most promising nuclear fusion reactor design
Type One Energy Group, based in Knoxville, has refined the design of a commercial-scale nuclear fusion power plant using extensive simulations on the Department of Energy’s Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Their advanced stellarator concept leverages high-performance computing to model plasma behavior and optimize the reactor’s physical shape, aiming to minimize turbulence and energy loss—a key challenge in sustaining fusion reactions. The team was granted 250,000 node hours on Summit, enabling thousands of complex evaluations that accelerated the design process by at least a year. This approach marks a novel use of high-fidelity performance projections in fusion power plant design. The stellarator design confines plasma made of hydrogen isotopes at temperatures around 270 million degrees Fahrenheit, about ten times hotter than the sun’s core, using intricate superconducting electromagnetic coils. While the fundamental principles have been demonstrated in research devices like Germany’s Wendelstein 7-X, Type One Energy’s simulations focused on passive turbulence control through shape optimization rather than simply scaling
energynuclear-fusionsupercomputer-simulationsstellaratorplasma-confinementfusion-reactor-designrenewable-energy-technologyNew pellet injector from US lab powers fusion record breakthrough
Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a novel high-speed pellet injector that significantly advanced fusion energy research by enabling a record-breaking plasma performance at the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) stellarator in Germany. This Continuous Pellet Fueling System injects a steady stream of solid hydrogen pellets, cooled near absolute zero and accelerated by helium gas, directly into the plasma core. This deep fueling method effectively raises the plasma’s core density more efficiently than traditional gas injection from the vessel’s edge, which is crucial for sustaining the plasma’s energy confinement and achieving the fusion “triple product” — the simultaneous attainment of high ion temperature, density, and energy confinement time. The W7-X stellarator, known for its complex three-dimensional magnetic confinement, had previously struggled to maintain high plasma density for extended periods, limiting sustained high-performance operation. The ORNL pellet injector overcame this limitation by maintaining a higher plasma density, which uniquely enhances energy confinement in stellarators. This breakthrough allowed
fusion-energypellet-injectorplasma-confinementstellaratorOak-Ridge-National-Laboratoryfusion-researchenergy-breakthrough