New record for fusion

iaea.org, Oct. 29, 2018 - Fusion Energy Conference 2018 Reviews Status of Research and Technology to Fusion Power.

The page is an overview of the whole conference. Each participant has a PDF link of their presentation. Lots of math and physics stuff but it is the real deal (not the watered down, "Gee! 'star in a jar'..." crap that gets thrown out there).

For example, the W7-X overview is 11 pages long and has the results nicely tabulated in one place. Very helpful!

That should keep my busy for a while!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

This flashed up on a news feed today. story

Three fusion stories up at phys.org today. I have the feeling that they are punking me. Each one of these stories have already been mentioned by me on this thread. What the heck is going on??

First up is an article on SPARC

One potential solution to this could be increasing the strength of the magnets. Magnetic fields in fusion devices serve to keep these hot ionized gases, called plasmas, isolated and insulated from ordinary matter. The quality of this insulation gets more effective as the field gets stronger, meaning that one needs less space to keep the plasma hot. Doubling the magnetic field in a fusion device allows one to reduce its volume—a good indicator of how much the device costs—by a factor of eight, while achieving the same performance. Thus, stronger magnetic fields make fusion smaller, faster and cheaper.

A breakthrough in superconductor technology could allow fusion power plants to come to fruition. Superconductors are materials that allow currents to pass through them without losing energy, but to do so they must be very cold. New superconducting compounds, however, can operate at much higher temperatures than conventional superconductors. Critical for fusion, these superconductors function even when placed in very strong magnetic fields.

While originally in a form not useful for building magnets, researchers have now found ways to manufacture high-temperature superconductors in the form of "tapes" or "ribbons" that make magnets with unprecedented performance. The design of these magnets is not suited for fusion machines because they are much too small. Before the new fusion device, called SPARC, can be built, the new superconductors must be incorporated into the kind of large, strong magnets needed for fusion.

Phys.org, Nov. 5, 2018 - A faster, cheaper path to fusion energy.

Nice to point out the SC tapes are not suitable for fusion reactor. Er, doubling magnetic field strength reduces overall size by 1/4, not 1/8. Unless they are just talking about plasma volume. But why just plasma volume because that is not what is expensive. In trying to create more powerful magnets compared to the ones in use at ITER means the overall size of the reactor shrinks which also saves money. And what is the purpose of the reactor (its overall output)? That also sets your size. S(mallest) P(ossible) A(ffordable) R(obust) C(ompact) reactor is not looking to make a huge reactor to power the eastern seaboard. They are thinking along the Lockheed Martin idea of having many smaller reactors distributed around.

The whole article does not state SPARC is taking time to develop HTSC magnets fitted for their device. There is no mention of combining Low Temp SC magnets with HT (high temp) SC magnet, since HTSC can operate in the magnetic field of LT magnets, and also become more efficient in the colder temperature. This has been demonstrated at the National MagLab with magnets up to 45T using HTSC and a resistive magnet. The guy who invented REBCO also made a nano powder which may open a path of inquiry.

Oh, they mention that MIT and Commonwealth Fusion System will present their developments at the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics but did not state this is 60th meeting and it will be going on from November 5 – 9.

See! You do not bury the lead! There is a big meeting in Portland where scientists are presenting their work which is why we have these two other stories:

Phys.org, Nov. 5, 2018 – Inside job: A new technique to cool a fusion reactor.
Phys.org, Nov. 5, 2018 – Taming plasmas: Improving fusion using microwaves.

Since fusion is a delicate balance between a swirling current, plasma gas, and magnetic fields, there are possibilities of getting things moving along out of your control. Alfven waves are one such effect that you do not want to see pop-up in your plasma. The hot ions begin vibrating causing heating issues which can lead to bigger events like magnetic field disruption which can damage the reactor. So the first article is about shooting boron encased in a diamond capsule into the center of the plasma. As the capsule ablates the boron enters into the plasma. Since it is heavier than the hydrogen isotopes used as fuel, the heat needed to cause fusion changes and the process stops before any bad events can happen.

The second article is about GA using a type of “microwave”, specifically, electron cyclotron waves, to smooth out Alfven waves in DIII-D tokamak. This was reported here when it was done sometime last year. Now, GA teamed with German researchers using the ASDEX-Upgrade tokomak to show the same can be accomplished.

They are not “article stalking” me! There is a big Plasma conference going on. Scientists are getting together to share their research. And get some "air time" with the nerdy types who read phys.org!

@Wood510, thanks for the post! The ST-40 is interesting. It is another example of non-governmental funding fusion effort. Keep an eye on them as they wanted to reach 100 million by years end (or double, forget which! lol). One to watch for!

60th Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society (aps.org)

Check out their session index.

Just looking at the abstract on GA's DIII-D tokomak I learned something!

They are using machine learning algorithms to predict plasma disruption events.

They actually set up magnetic islands in the plasma and let the machine handle the maths to come to the conclusion a disruption is about to happen. Looks pretty good at over 90% correctness.

The next step would to hook up the microwave guns to computer control and allow the electron cyclotron waves to quench any disruptions automatically!

With a machine handling it all, I could be one of the b00bs from Section 7G!!

Machine Learning algorithms predict disruptions correctly >90% of the time with

a reply to: TEOT RE: Energy storage

In February the US’ main regulator the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), issued FERC Order 841, instructing the US’ six regional electricity transmission organisations to reconfigure their wholesale markets to allow energy storage to participate. The ISOs and RTOs have about a year to respond in full.

Order 841 would open up the markets for capacity, energy and ancillary services to even small or aggregated behind-the-meter energy storage resources. In March at our publisher Solar Media’s Energy Storage Summit in London, Energy-Storage.news heard from FERC branch chief Nancy Bowler that the move “really expands the place where storage can play in the US, pretty dramatically”.

Similarly, at Energy Storage International in California a few weeks back, Janice Lin of the California Energy Storage Alliance identified Order 841 as one of the biggest pro-energy storage shifts the US energy market is likely to see.

Energy-storage.news, Nov. 5, 2018 - Ahead of biggest energy storage rule change yet, US’ transmission network operators open up markets.

FERC Order 841 in February of this year which said to what extent energy storage would have to be used by utilities. It also sent limits so utilities could not make energy at one price, store it, then either charge you to use it or make you pay the price it was created at.

Anyway, in order to comply with the national rule, regional utilities have had to create roadmaps. This article is detailing what some ISOs/RTOs are doing to comply with the order. Even before they have to!

Looks like the second leg of my 3 leg approach to birthing nuclear fusion is actually being worked.

Credit: Bernhard Ludewig, Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics
Source: Peak performance: new stellarator experiments show promising results.

This is also a preview of their presentation at the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics convention where they will discuss the sellarator record they set recently.

What you are seeing is the interior of the Wendelstein 7X sellarator. The black tiles are the machine cut carbon tiles that protects the wall of the reactor (called, "the first wall"). The tiles create a path that the plasma flow around that helps direct it (path of least resistance). It also keeps the plasma from scraping impurities off the first wall.

After running a D-T plasma through, they condition the reactor by running boron through it as a plasma.

Anyway, I think that picture is neat and, er, kind of sexy (if you can call a reactor sexy!)

China is making leaps and bounds in developing its "artificial sun," known as the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) by operating nuclear fusion reaction at temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius, according to the Institute of Plasma Physics, affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences on Monday.

CGTN.com, Nov. 13, 2018 - China's 'artificial sun' operates at temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius.

I don't know about "leaps and bounds" and there is no report on how long they held it, or if they were in H-mode, but this is a big step. China had issues heating their plasma up but if this is true, they may have solved their issues.

The problem with China, is typically, they release news like this without any science release. That is kind of frustrating as the rest of the world would like to know how far along they are (or if it is a publicity stunt). Without other readouts it is really hard to say.

a reply to: Me!

The Chinese research team said they were able to achieve the record temperature through the use of various new techniques in heating and controlling the plasma, but could only maintain the state for about 10 seconds.

abc.net.au - China's 'artificial sun' reaches 100 million degrees Celsius marking milestone for nuclear fusion.

The EAST (according to Wikipedia) has 7.5 MW of heating. They have been able to run in H-mode since 2015.

Again, without being able to access Chinese websites, I do not know if this was in H-mode or what pressure regime they were at. But 100 °C for 10 seconds is huge first step towards their stated goal of 1 000 seconds (Wikipedia).

I remember in the Sun news paper UK about 40 years ago a story with photos.
just like this one but 4 times as big. They disappeared it!

I think they had a working one over 35 years ago.
but to get US to All pay Lots of money they hide it.
do you really think they would let the world have
energy at 10,000% of the cost?

a reply to: buddha


My personal feeling is that Lockheed Martin had one working for a while (mid 90s to early 2000s). Then, who knows for what reason, they were given the green light to make their announcement in 2014 about their Compact Fusion Reactor.

I read on The Drive, that since we have not heard about the next version reactor, LM might have slipped their timeline by a few years. I think it was an article about China's announcement and they set the article up as LM vs. China in a race for fusion energy. That is the problem with not making periodic research available to the fusion community (and my hesitation about China's announcement because all we have is a number with no other numbers to see what has been accomplished). Keeping quiet also allows the nay-sayers to come in and say whatever they feel like.

I just want one team to succeed because that usually means others are close! And like different kinds of engines, we will probably need several different types of fusion reactors doing real world work.

Who knows, maybe that is why the deficit has been allowed to balloon to unimaginable levels! Once fusion comes on-line, what happens to money/inflation/the wealthy? That unknown may be a reason for me being a fanboy! Death to the dinosaurs!!

The newly installed neutral particle heating injects fast hydrogen atoms into the plasma, which transfer their energy to the plasma particles via collisions. The result was high plasma densities of up to 2 x 10**20 particles per cubic meter – values that are sufficient for a future power station. At the same time, the ions and electrons of the hydrogen plasma reached an impressive temperature of 20 million degrees Celsius.

...

The final experiments [for Stage 2] were conducted in mid-October; in the meantime, the next round of upgrades on Wendelstein 7-X has begun. In order to be able to further increase the heating energy without overloading the vessel wall, the current graphite tiles of the divertor will be replaced over the next two years by water-cooled elements made of carbon fibre-reinforced carbon. With this equipment, work will be conducted on a step by step basis with the aim of achieving plasmas that last for 30 minutes. Then, it will remain to be seen whether Wendelstein 7-X can also fulfil its optimisation goals during continuous operation – the essential advantage of stellarators.

IPP.mpg.de (English site), Nov. 26, 2018 - Successful second round of experiments with Wendelstein 7-X.

Max Plank Institute has updated their website to a bit more modern styling. It is in the same layout as before but looks a bit more streamlined (except the "all white" background. Ahem, IPP, all the cool kids have gone "dark themed" a few years ago...)

ETA: It is not said in the IPP PRs, but they do a cleaning/conditioning run on the divertors and reactor walls with a diborane and helium mixture to scrub off any impurities. This "conditions" the wall for future runs and makes it hard for any water to condense (if it does, it is on the surface and will be blasted off when cleaned before the next round starts). This conditioning has increased heating efficiency in subsequent runs.

The second round of runs have completed (after summer break). Not only did they complete, but they are already starting the upgrade process to replace the passively cooled items with water cooled elements. The water cooling has been there since the construction finished but was not hooked up (it was scheduled that way). The plan is to get W7-X up to the 30 minute mark in 4 stages. The announcement today is that they have completed Stage 2. They are using two types of heating: Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH) and Ion Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ICRH). Up until now, only ECRH was being used to heat the plasma (most news stories will just say, "microwave heating" and leave it at that. Close enough!).

For Stage 3, they will add one ICRH gun and stop off at 1.5 MW heating (while testing other equipment). The antenna shape has to be specifically made (source: IAEA Overview W7-X link posted earlier). Because they were in passive mode, they could run W7-X at 80 MJ heating. With the active cooling and new ion beam gun, they are going to run up to 1000 MJ heating (source: IAEA pdf). Then a hop onto Stage 4 with 2 ICRH guns (total of 18 GJ!) they will demonstrate heating to 100 million C, at pressure, and 30 minute discharge (i.e., ready for a demo reactor).

Only have to wait another 2 years! lol.

Dr. Llion Evans of Swansea University College of Engineering said:

"This work is a proof of concept that both these tomography methods can produce valuable data. In future these complementary techniques can be used either for the research and development cycle of fusion component design or in quality assurance of manufacturing".

The next step is to convert the 3-D images produced by this powerful technique into engineering simulations with micro-scale resolution. This technique, known as image-based finite element method (IBFEM), enables the performance of each part to be assessed individually and account for minor deviations from design caused by manufacturing processes.

phys.org, Dec. 4, 2018 - A step closer to fusion energy: Imaging allows better testing of components for devices.

This is research news. They used two different imaging techniques to image a piece of cooling equipment (called a "monoblock") for any wear and tear when placed in neutron stream.

Verifying both imaging methods means they can use both without having to take equipment apart. Also means they can design parts for where they realize that they need it. That all means shorter down times between runs and better design for that monstrosity in France, ITER.

It is that time of year when runs are slowing down for the Holiday break so I expect more of these types of stories.

As always, nothing from Lockheed's CFR.

As the density, temperature, and currents in the hot ionized gas, known as plasma, inside experimental fusion devices reach the point where hydrogen ions fuse to form helium and huge amounts of energy are released, the electric currents become increasingly difficult to control. If control is lost, the plasma disrupts. A dangerous avalanche of fast electrons is continuously accelerated by a self-generated electric field. These electrons can escape and melt “hot spots” in the wall. In addition to avoidance strategies, the scientists that operate future fusion reactors need mitigation strategies to reduce the damage. A new approach exploits a fan instability first observed in electromagnetic waves in the Earth’s atmosphere.

The continuous acceleration of the electrons means they get faster and faster until their speed approaches the speed of light. Then, Einstein’s theory of relativity kicks in. The mass of the electrons increases, time seems to slow down, and the resonance condition changes.

To better understand this process, scientists at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory have developed a numerical simulation code that fully utilizes modern multi-core processors. When the resonance condition is satisfied, the electrons are drawn away from their original trajectories and trapped inside whirlpool-like vortices formed by the whistler waves. The energy is diffused and the momentum scattered; this is exactly what is required for mitigation: impede the relativistic electrons before they hit the wall.

Simulations of existing experiments show the importance of this fan instability in the suppression of avalanches and the enhancement of radiation (that is, cooling) from the runaway electrons. Scientists are now testing this idea as a mitigation strategy in ITER, where the whistler waves are either caused by self-excited fan instability or by the use of external antennas, to limit the damage caused by disruptions.

newswise.com, Dec. 12, 2018 - Drawn into a Whirlpool: A New Way to Stop Dangerous Fast Electrons in a Fusion Device.

Previous article, May 2018 - Ghostly 'Lightning' Waves Discovered Inside a Nuclear Reactor.

The news ties back into the previous announcement earlier this year about "whistler waves" in the ionosphere being identified in a tokamak reactor.

They both have the same thing in common: electric current.

The current helps "steer" the plasma. But because it is whipping around the center, it creates various forms of turbulence. Each type is characterized by type and has their own names like, Alfven waves, Berenstein waves, and the subject of inquiry, whistler waves (they found the electric current up in the atmosphere and when converted to a sound they heard this noise that sounded like a slide whistler, and hence their name). The thing about whistler waves, they have a vortex associated with them (as the waves spread, it spreads out like fan, hence the name, "fan instability") which nuclear physicists theorized they could aim some of the current into to "calm" it down (dissipate some of the energy).

They used AI to study if it was possible. Then discovered it is. This was tried (IIRC) at DIII-D GA tokamak. That was small, obscure announcement (not even sure if I posted it here!). They used radio waves to slow down the current and used the whistler wave technique to calm down instabilities.

Now here is the weird thing. I swear that not only did this already happen but then they took it one step further and constricted the ion stream and forced it band together; like wringing out a towel length-wise you twist it until the water comes out but in this case, the plasma got hotter to the point of ignition. I swear I saw a photo of this happen (computer screen drawing of the effect) but cannot find it! They could not go any further because the fast neutrons could not be dealt with so they were kind of stuck. This was several years ago... but like I said, I cannot find it anywhere!

Weird, huh? Kind of my own private Idaho ME experience! If it comes to pass then you can always point at that crazy TEOT on ATS always going on about nuclear fusion!!

“We knew that these fields can become unstable,” said lead author Paulo Alves, a research associate working with Fiúza. “But what exactly happens when the magnetic fields become distorted, and could this process explain how particles gain tremendous energy in these jets? That’s what we wanted to find out in our study.”

To do so, the researchers simulated the motions of up to 550 billion particles – a miniature version of a cosmic jet – on the Mira supercomputer at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory. Then, they scaled up their results to cosmic dimensions and compared them to astrophysical observations.
…

The simulations showed that when the helical magnetic field is strongly distorted, the magnetic field lines become highly tangled and a large electric field is produced inside the jet. This arrangement of electric and magnetic fields can, indeed, efficiently accelerate electrons and protons to extreme energies. While high-energy electrons radiate their energy away in the form of X-rays and gamma rays, protons can escape the jet into space and reach the Earth’s atmosphere as cosmic radiation.

Slac.stanford.edu, Dec. 13, 2018 – Tangled magnetic fields power cosmic particle accelerators.

YouTube - SLAC - Cosmic Jet Simulation


This is closer to what I remember but instead of being vertical it was horizontal and was in the shape of a tokamak.

The SMBH spins, the magnetic field wraps around itself and out shoots whatever particles in the accretion disk that has not crossed the event horizon. Again, it like wringing out a towel lengthwise but when applied to ions in a plasma they keep getting closer (…closer…), then that magic point where the Coulomb barrier is overcome… fusion.

Weird that I mention it and a few hours later SLAC puts this out which was picked up by phys.org. Instead of investigating disruptions they are going to wring the plasma!

Universe has a strange sense of humor!

The award from the DOE's Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program totals 6.05 million node-hours on three Leadership Computing Facilities at Oakridge and Argonne National Laboratories, which are DOE Office of Science User Facilities. Each computer node has thousands of CPU cores, which are individual data processors. A single node-hour is thus equivalent to thousands of core-hours.

The allotment marks the second year of the team's three-year INCITE designation, "and will enable our team to continue its study of the boundary physics of fusion plasmas for ITER," Chang said.

The PPPL deployment will be on these three supercomputers:

Summit, the newly installed Oak Ridge supercomputer that is the world's most powerful, will provide 1.05 million node-hours.

Titan, also at Oak Ridge, will provide 3.5 million node-hours.

Theta, at Argonne National Laboratory, will provide 1.5 million node-hours.

phys.org, Dec. 17, 2018 - Team wins major supercomputer time to study the edge of fusion plasmas.

Probably another reason the path to fusion has been so slow: computer power. I wonder what the electrical power needed to run all those cores actually is? Sure somebody will add all the time to claim fusion still hasn't reached the "break even point" (always has to be one).

Looks like we actually need a fusion reactor to power the computers needed to model fusion reactions!

Sorensen is studying a key element of the fusion pilot plant: the liquid immersion blanket, essentially a flowing pool of molten salt that completely surrounds the fusion energy core. The purpose of this blanket is threefold: to convert the kinetic energy of [fused fast] neutrons to heat for eventual electricity production; to [breed] tritium — [one of the] component[s] of [...] fusion fuel; and to prevent the neutrons from reaching other parts of the machine and causing material damage.

(my edits in "[]")

[Dennis] Whyte described a growing fusion ecosystem in which researchers across disciplines — mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, aero-astro — are working together to achieve a mutual goal of fusion energy in time to make a difference. “This is exactly the kind of innovative research and development that we should be doing,” he says.

new.mit.edu, Jan. 11, 2019 - Tapping the MIT talent pool for the future of fusion.

Ah, business speak! "Ecosystem" is one of those terms managers love to throw around. In schools the term "multidisciplinary" serves the same purpose. Groups of different disciplines engaged in one single vision (ahem, "mission statement").

While the egg-head inside of me loves the fusion generation ups and downs there is also this nagging concern of "OK. How are you going to get energy out of that?" I do not remember classes being offered for "power plant" and the path to get there is a long one!

While I like the "molten salt blanket" to remove working thermal energy for electricity generation (somebody should take a long, hard look at using supercritical CO2. Maybe even use some of the energy to actively remove it from the atmosphere. Two birds, one stone), the other idea makes even more sense: liquid lithium limiter (LLL). An amount of lithium-6 is pumped into the reactor, gasified, then the fast neutrons zipping around collide with it against the reactor wall or free floating around. The kinetic energy is transferred, and sometimes, tritium is produced. The liquid lithium pools at the bottom of the reactor where it is drawn out, cleaned, heat exchanged, then recycled back through. This method keeps embrittlement down. The blanket method allows the reactor walls to become embrittled as a trade-off for power generation.

Seems there is standoff here between MIT's blanket and SPARC, and LLL at PPPL where it has been demonstrated to work.

Lockheed is using the blanket method (their patent states it).

Either way, as long as one comes online in my lifetime, I will be happy!

Nice to see the brain trust of MIT get excited over nuclear fusion and begin to address the mechanical engineering (and all the other disciplines noted in the article) side of the equation.

For more than 20 years TAE has been pursuing a reactor that would fuse hydrogen and boron at extremely high temperatures, releasing excess energy much as the sun does when it fuses hydrogen atoms. Lately the California company has been testing the heat capacity of its process in a machine it named Norman after the late UC Irvine physicist Norman Rostoker.


Its next device, dubbed Copernicus, is designed to demonstrate an energy gain. It will involve deuterium-tritium fusion, the aim of most competitors, but a milestone on TAE's path to a hotter, but safer, hydrogen-boron reaction.

Binderbauer expects to pass the D-T fusion milestone soon.

"What we're really going to see in the next couple years is actually the ability to actually make net energy, and that's going to happen in the machine we call Copernicus," he said in a "fireside chat" at UC Irvine.

forbes.com, Jan. 14, 2019 Ene rgy From Fusion In 'A Couple Years,' CEO Says, Commercialization In Five.

There is a redaction on the original story because the CEO said "a couple of years" and Forbes put "2 years" in their article which was then pushed to "5 years".

TAE Technologies is probably better known as "Tri Alpha Energy" by people following the fusion story. They are using lasers and aiming for the proton-Boron reaction which happens at higher temperatures than deuterium tritium (D-T) fusion. Most devices are doing D-T reactions while these guys are taking the time to do the engineering up front. The p-B reaction requires higher temperatures but the result are 3 helium nuclei (aka, "alpha particles" hence their name) and energy that can be harnessed from the reaction itself. In order to get to those temps they are passing the D-T regime so will do that reaction while moving on to p-B regime.

The article mentions in passing that TAE is talking with the DOE now too. That means they are serious I guess! Anyway, if they can do D-T fusion and reach net gain that will be a game changer on this planet. Our true nuclear future will begin upon that day.

For decades, nuclear scientists have been trying to harness the energy produced by the thermonuclear fusion of some of the lightest nuclei, deuterium (D) and tritium (T), to power thermonuclear reactors of the future.

In spin polarized DT thermonuclear fusion—where the D and T nuclei are "spinning" in the same direction—the fusion rate could be enhanced by as much 50 percent and the produced charged helium (He) nuclei could be more efficiently focused to heat up the fuel. This is one of fusion technology's next frontiers.

phys.org, Jan. 24, 2019 - Scientists predict reaction data for fusion research, insight into universe's origins.

Weird, huh? I thought this was already being done! At least I thought I had read about this but this appeared in an astronomical article that just happened to mention nuclear fusion.

Reading about tokamaks, the ions move around the center being pushed in by the magnetic confinement fields. They also induce a spiral magnetic field around themselves aligned with the plane of the confinement field. I wonder if you could disturb the proton's field so it stretches (maybe "magnetically pump" the ions to distort their field) because it seems to me you end "fighting" the field and having to heat the whole mess up even more.

If I knew this stuff... it is probably too much of a chaotic mess (they have been trying for over 60 years!) to actually do that. And since I was wrong about polarized fusion already being done, I am probably wrong about stretching the ion's magnetic field...

Anyhoo, cool nuclear fusion thought for the day!

First Light uses a high-velocity projectile to create a shockwave to collapse a cavity containing plasma inside a 'target'. The design of these targets is First Light's "technical USP", the company said.

Machine 3 can discharge up to 200,000 volts and more than 14 million amperes - the equivalent of nearly 500 simultaneous lightning strikes - within two microseconds. The GBP3.6 million (USD4.6 million) machine uses some 3 kilometres of high-voltage cables and another 10 kilometres of diagnostic cables. Machine 3 uses electromagnetism to fire projectiles at around 20 kilometres per second.

Last July, First Light Fusion successfully fired the first test 'shot' on one of the six limbs of Machine 3 and swiftly proceeded to test three-limb shots in September.

He said the company is confident that it will be able to demonstrate first fusion using Machine 3 by mid-2019. "After fusion, the next phase is to show energy gain, which we aim to complete by 2024," Hawker added.

world-nuclear-news.org, Feb. 12, 2019 - First Light Fusion commissions pulsed power device.

These are the guys who using massive amount of electro-magnetic power to hurl a projectile at a specially configured target. The whole thing sounds crazy, which is one reason it is cool, but they also can build the thing quickly. Each arm is designed the same as the others, so they test one, they can then throw the others on like the article said, 3 in one month. This news is about all 6 of the arms being in place and how they are starting their fusion demonstration phase.

These guys came from out of nowhere and look to be on the road to achieving fused particles then continue on to net gain.

a reply to: Arbitrageur

Yeah I remember reading about the tokamaks being the answer to everything - even space flight back in the early 80's in Omni magazine.

Only when we are choking will the science be ready for non-fossil fuels /sarcasm


en.wikipedia.org...(magazine)