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FUSION RESEARCH
& DEVELOPMENT

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Achievement of Ion Temperatures in Excess of 100 million Degrees Kelvin in the

Compact High-Field Spherical Tokamak ST40

ST40 Compact High-Field Spherical Tokamak

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Fusion Development

Peer Reviewed - Open Access - Accepted Manuscript - FREE Download

Ion temperatures of over 100 million degrees Kelvin (8.6keV) have been produced in the ST40 compact high-field spherical tokamak (ST). Ion temperatures in excess of 5keV have not previously been reached in any ST and have only been obtained in much larger devices with substantially more plasma heating power. The corresponding fusion triple product is calculated to be ni0Ti0τE≈6±2×1018m-3keVs. These results demonstrate for the first time that ion temperatures relevant for commercial magnetic confinement fusion can be obtained in a compact high-field spherical tokamak and bode well for fusion power plants based on the high-field ST.

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Fusion Development

First Measurements of Hydrogen-Boron Fusion in a Magnetically Confined Fusion Plasma

As fusion developers around the world race to commercialize fusion energy, TAE Technologies has pioneered the pursuit of the cleanest and most economical path to providing electricity with hydrogen-boron (also known as p-B11 or p11B), an abundant, environmentally sound fuel. Today the company is announcing, in collaboration with Japan's National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS), a noteworthy research advancement: the first-ever hydrogen-boron fusion experiments in a magnetically confined fusion plasma.

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On Monday, March 13 at 10:00 AM ET, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) will host an event to highlight the investments in science, technology, and innovation in President Joe Biden’s FY 2024 Budget.  Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and OSTP Director Arati Prabhakar, and other Biden-Harris Administration science and technology leaders, will detail how the President’s historic investment in federal research and development will support the Administration’s efforts to leverage the power of American science, technology, and innovation to deliver results for the American people and achieve our nation’s greatest aspirations.

Monday, March 9th, 2023 at 10AM ET

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White House OSTP & Biden Administration

Science & Technology Leaders to Highlight Historic S&T Investments in President Biden’s FY24 Budget

Fusion Development

Fusion Is About To Become A Must-Have Investment, DOE Official Says

“As the technology continues to mature, there will be a point where private investors feel that they must be invested in fusion, and I feel like we’re starting to reach that inflection point,” Scott Hsu said Thursday in a webinar hosted by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine.

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Private funding moves past public investment in 2021 with over 20 companies pushing to bring fusion energy to the power grid in the early 2030s

Fusion Development

Tony Donne, EUROfusion

Programme Manager (CEO)

TEDx Presentation

Fusion Development

Why Should We Make

a Star on Earth?

Tony Donné tells us both the reasons and the obstacles to succeed in this venture, and illustrates how all this has to do with an energy future of the 

planet closer than we imagine. Dutch physicist of international renown, for over 20 years, he has been a reference point in the field of nuclear physics. Since 2014 he is CEO of EUROfusion, a consortium that coordinates research in the field of fusion science and technology in 29 European countries. 

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Dr. Paul Humrickhouse 

Distinguished Scientist, Blanket and

Fuel Cycle Group ORNL

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Overview of the Safety and Licensing Aspects of Future Fusion Power Plants

Fusion Development

  • Utility Perspectives on Fusion

  • Radioactive Materials from Fusion

  • Neutron Activation

  • Radioactive Material Concerns & Confinement

  • Decay Heat in Fusion Reactors

  • How Radioactive Materials Mobilize 

  • NRC Licensing Status & Waste Classification

The Complete Recorded Presentation

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Comparison of heat radiated by tungsten contaminants inside JET with the screening heat barrier in place (right) and without it (left). Source: Anthony Fields et al., Nuclear Fusion

Breakthrough in Impurity Reduction Proves Promising for ITER and Future Power Plants

EUROfusion researchers at the Joint European Torus (JET) fusion device have made a significant breakthrough in the development of fusion energy by confirming that fusion devices can effectively remove impurities coming from the metal divertor, reducing heat loss from the fusion plasma.

Fusion Development

A Magor Atep Forward: The finding is excellent news because it will make it easier for future fusion devices like the ITER facility to reach and maintain fusion conditions, say the researchers. Although the effect was already known from computer simulations,the research now published is the first-ever experimental validation and shows that the screening effect can be counted on in ITER and in future fusion power plants. This breakthrough is a major step towards the realization of fusion energy as a sustainable and reliable source of energy for the future.

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Artistic depiction of a pair of holes caused by the magnetic background of the system.

C.Hohmann/MCQST

Quantum Simulator Enables First Microscopic Observation

of Charge Carriers Pairing

Fusion Development

A team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) has for the first time monitored in an experiment how holes (positive charge carriers) in a solid-state model combined to form pairs. This process could play an important role in understanding high-temperature superconductivity.

The team in Garching has now for the first time been able to demonstrate pairs which are formed this way. Their experiment was based on a lattice-like arrangement of cold atoms, as well as on a tricky suppression of the movement of free charge carriers. The researchers report on their results in the journal "Nature".

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This reprocessed colour view of Jupiter’s moon Europa was made from images taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

...a team of NASA researchers led by Dr. Theresa Benyo has proposed a new method that would rely on something other than conventional radioactive isotopes—plutonium-238 or enriched uranium-235. Instead, their method would involve triggering nuclear fusion reactions between the atoms of a solid metal.

A Hybrid Fission/Fusion Reactor Could be the Best Way to get Through the Ice on Europa

Physics.org, January 17, 2023  by Matt Williams, Universe Today

In the coming years, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) will send two robotic missions to explore Jupiter's icy moon Europa. These are none other than NASA's Europa Clipper and the ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), which will launch in 2024, and 2023 (respectively). Once they arrive by the 2030s, they will study Europa's surface with a series of flybys to determine if its interior ocean could support life. These will be the first astrobiology missions to an icy moon in the outer solar system, collectively known as "ocean worlds."

Looking for Life in the Oceans on Europa

Fusion Development

Fusion Energy is No Longer an Experiment

a Fusion Reaction of 59 Megajoules

Provides the Details

  • Landmark results from EUROfusion scientists and engineers at world-leading Joint European Torus (JET) facility in Oxford, UK

  • Record-breaking 59 megajoules of sustained fusion energy

  • Results fully in line with predictions, strengthening the case for ITER

  • Fusion energy can provide a safe, efficient and low-carbon energy supply

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Materials & Engineering Design Assistance

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Ceramic Metallization

Brazed Assemblies

Vacuum Feedthroughs

High Temp Circuit Boards

Advertisement

Fusion power: how close are we? | FT Film

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Fusion Development

Produced filmed and edited by Petros Gioumpasis. Reported by Simon Mundy. Additional footage by ITER, NASA, Tokamak Energy Getty, Reuters, BVE, CFS. Graphics by Rory Griffiths, Ian Bott and Russell Birkett. Postproduction by Coda

For the first time, US scientists have achieved a fusion reaction with net energy gain. But the dream of limitless zero-carbon energy is still a long way from reality. The FT's Simon Mundy meets scientists and investors in the UK, France and US, to see how close we really are to commercial fusion power

Interviews in this first of three instalments:

Pietro Barabaschi, Director General – ITER

Tim Luce, Head of Scientific Operations – ITER

Malcolm Parry, Senior Associate – Hogan Lovells

Melanie Windridge, Physicist – Fusion Energy Insights

Hannah Willett, Plasma Diagnostician – Tokamak Energy

Phil Larochelle, Partner – Breakthrough Energy Ventures

Bob Mumgaard, CEO – Commonwealth Fusion Systems  

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Realization of thousand-second improved confinement plasma with Super I-mode in Tokamak EAST

The formal technology findings release was published in the journal Science - ScienceAdvances, physics research article on January 6th, 2023.

Fusion Development

World Record Fusion

Pulse Length of 1056 Seconds

Chinese tokamak achieves Super I-mode

World Nuclear News, Jan. 9th, 2023

A new mode of improved plasma confinement has been demonstrated at the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences announced. It said the new high-confinement and self-organising Super I-mode "represents the reliability and advancement of the machine itself but also offers insights into how to better maintain the plasma operating stably and for long duration".

Fusion Develpment

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LLNL on February 22nd through the 24th, 2022 hosted the

"LLNL, IFE Science & Technology Community Strategic Planning Workshop"

and on May 19th, 2022, they provided the report.

Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) Steps Forward

This Report is the Plan for the National Ignition Facility's (NIF)

Development of an IFE Demonstration Facility.

December 26th, 2022

Credit Image: EUROFusion

Over 200 scientists, engineers and administrators from public and private sectors participated in the in the WebEx meeting. They were mostly from the U.S. but there was a healthy 25% international representation.  All of them were given a voice for input and discussion. The workshop was organized by a committee from various national labs and universities and chaired by Alex Zystra, an experimental physicist with LLNL. I sat in on those three (3) days of meetings and presentations. Fusion Energy News Intl. may have been the only news outlet to do so. 

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Read and Download the Entire Report with Links to the Agenda, Presentations & Breakout Meetings (79-pages 100+ links)

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Fusion Energy is No Longer an Experiment

a Fusion Reaction of 59 Megajoules

Provides the Details

  • Landmark results from EUROfusion scientists and engineers at world-leading Joint European Torus (JET) facility in Oxford, UK

  • Record-breaking 59 megajoules of sustained fusion energy

  • Results fully in line with predictions, strengthening the case for ITER

  • Fusion energy can provide a safe, efficient and low-carbon energy supply

Credit Image: EUROFusion

If you missed this article, it happened a year ago on December 21st, 2021. While the U.S. Department of Energy, National Ignition Facility Experiment is historic and of incalculable value, so is this EUROFusion experiment and likely of greater importance to commercial fusion. <<Read the Full Article Here>> The article contains links to EUROFusion, ITER, the Fusion Industry Association and several of the world's leading commercial Fusion Energy companies.

Fusion Develpment

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NIF ACHIEVES FUSION ENERGY NET GAIN

Nuclear Fusion Lab Achieves ‘Ignition’: What Does It Mean?

Fusion researchers at the U.S. National Ignition Facility created a reaction that made more energy than they put in.

By Jeff TollefsonElizabeth GibneyNature

(Read full article at Scientific American)

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Fusion Develpment

Fusion Energy Breakthrough 
by U.S. Scientists Boosts
Clean Power Hopes

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility

Achieves Net Fusion Gain

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Fusion Development

Despite Conflict, Russia Sends France
Giant Magnet for Nuclear Fusion Project

Russia dispatched one of six giant magnets needed for the ITER nuclear fusion programme in France, one of the last international scientific projects Moscow participates in despite the Ukraine conflict.

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Fusion Development

UKAEA Announces: West Burton Selected as Home of STEP Fusion Plant.

Government-backed programme aims to prove low carbon electricity from fusion

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Fusion Development

South Korea’s Fusion Reactor Sustained Temperatures 7 Times Hotter Than the Sun

The 14-year-old tokamak experiment is a building block for ITER, which will one day be the largest fusion reactor in the world.

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