Fusion Power in 4 Years
JoeMerchant writes:
Bold new claims from an "open Fusion" development team. They claim a compact design utilizing newly available high temperature superconductors will combine to allow them to demonstrate 10:1 energy returns from fusion reactions within the next four to five years, add 10 more years to build a practical electrical generation station around it. Stories have been all over the popular press for days now:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/29/climate/nuclear-fusion-reactor.html
https://news.mit.edu/2020/physics-fusion-studies-0929
Two and a half years ago, MIT entered into a research agreement with startup company Commonwealth Fusion Systems to develop a next-generation fusion research experiment, called SPARC, as a precursor to a practical, emissions-free power plant.
Now, after many months of intensive research and engineering work, the researchers charged with defining and refining the physics behind the ambitious tokamak design have published a series of papers summarizing the progress they have made and outlining the key research questions SPARC will enable.
[...] "The MIT group is pursuing a very compelling approach to fusion energy." says Chris Hegna, a professor of engineering physics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, who was not connected to this work. "They realized the emergence of high-temperature superconducting technology enables a high magnetic field approach to producing net energy gain from a magnetic confinement system. This work is a potential game-changer for the international fusion program."
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