DailyDirt: Making Progress Towards Fusion (Again)

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Fusion would be a real game-changer if we could actually harness it to generate energy. The problem, though, is that we're pretty far from controlling the insanely hot nuclear reactions in a way that produces net energy. Sure, almost anyone can build a fusion reactor. (But seriously, don't bring one to school to impress your teachers, kids!) The trick is maintaining hot plasma somewhere safe for as long as you need to -- and to figure out a way to get usable energy out of your fusion reactor. Some folks have reported reaching some milestones, but fusion still sounds more than 30 years away, as usual.

• Is a practical fusion generator actually within sight now? Huge fusion projects are still projecting decades of more research before achieving any kind of energy production, but some smaller privately-funded projects seem to be making some milestone advances. MIT's ARC reactor (affordable, robust, compact) has thrown its concept design into the ring as well. However, it's still uncertain whether we'll have a working fusion generator within a decade. (Ahem. Probably not.) [url]
• The common approaches to fusion energy include: inertial confinement fusion (ICF), magnetic confinement fusion (MCF), and a hybrid of those two called magnetized target fusion (MTF). ICF and MCF have been battling over which is getting closer to a break-even point, and MTF doesn't seem to have had as much progress in recent years. But there may be other approaches that don't quite fit into these categories that might work even better. [url]
• Tri Alpha Energy claims to have achieved confinement of a plasma at about 10 million degrees Celsius for 5 milliseconds. This California company reports that it can maintain control over this plasma indefinitely, but they're using energy to do so -- not making any net energy (yet). Still, this precursor to a unique hydrogen-boron fusion reactor could beat the ITER to a practical fusion generator. [url]

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Filed Under: arc reactor, energy, fusion, hydrogen-boron fusion, icf, inertial confinement fusion, iter, magnetic confinement fusion, magnetized target fusion, mcf, mtf, nuclear energy, plasma
Companies: tri alpha energy