Company Claims to Have Viable Fusion Reactor
A company associated with the Massachusetts Institute Institute of Technology (MIT) claims to a viable fusion reactor design.
Several peer-reviewed articles in The Journal of Plasma Physicsvalidate Commonwealth Fusion Systems’ (CFS) nuclear fusion reactor design, a press release claims. The papers are the first peer-reviewed articles that show a compact fusion device from a private company could function as a power plant, a CFS press release claims.
Scientists from CFS and MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) wrote the articles. The articles review CFS’s SPARC fusion experiment. CFS use will the SPARC to test and demonstrate its fusion technology.
Does Commonwealth Fusion Systems Have a Viable Fusion Reactor Design?
If the SPARC works, CFS will build a fusion plant capable of generating enough electricity to power a small city.
The SPARC is a compact, high-field, DT burning tokamak fusion reactor. Scientists and engineers from PFSFC and CFS are collaborating on the SPARC project.
The Journal articles claim the SPARC could generate enough high temperature plasma to be self-heating. In theory, a fusion reactor could heat plasma to temperatures as hot as the sun.
If the temperatures are sustainable, the fusion reactor can create enormous amounts of heat. Engineers could use the heat to power steam turbines that can generate enormous amounts of electricity.
The SPARC uses the same technology as the gigantic International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in Saint-Paul-lès-Durance, France. The ITER is a multinational project to build a working tokamak fusion reactor.
However, the ITER is 10 times bigger than the SPARC. The ITER’s construction has dragged on for years. I do not think the ITER is a viable project because of its enormous size.
Both the ITER and the SPARC will use high temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets to create a hot fusion reaction. However, they use newer and smaller, more-advanced magnets in the SPARC.
New semiconductor could speed Fusion commercialization
CFS claims to have designed, built, and demonstrated a new high-temperature superconductor (HTS) that could speed hot fusion development.
CFS engineers think they use the new HTS cable they call VIPER build magnets, a press release claims. Scientists could use the magnets to create a magnetic field that could contain a fusion reaction.
The plasma in fusion reactors is so hot it will burn through any material. Therefore, a magnetic field is the only way to contain a fusion reaction. Without powerful magnets, fusion is impossible.
CFS scientists are confident about VIPER they published results about in the journal Superconducting Science and Technology. That journal describes VIPER as “an industrially scalable high-current high-temperature superconductor cable.”
Therefore, they could use the VIPER cable in other fusion projects, including the ITER, the Joint European Torus in England, and Germany’s Wendelstein 7-X stellarator.
Fusion company attracts enormous investments
Commonwealth Fusion Systems is attracting enormous investments. The company claims to have raised $200 million from private investors.
In May 2020, CFS raised $84 million in its A2 funding rounding. CFS’s investors include Temasek, Equinor and Devonshire Investors, Equinor and Devonshire Investors, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, The Engine, ENI Next LLC, Future Ventures, Hostplus, Khosla Ventures, Moore Strategic Ventures, Safar Partners LLC, Schooner Capital, and Starlight Ventures.
Temasek Private Holdings Limited is a Singapore investment company that claims to have a $306 billion portfolio. Equinor and Devonshire Investors is a private equity group affiliated with FMR LLC; the parent company of Fidelity Investments.
Billionaires invest in Fusion
Breakthrough Energy Ventures is a fund that invests in green energy technologies. Breakthrough Energy Ventures’ investors include Bill Gates, Alibaba (BABA) founder Jack Ma, SoftBank boss Masayoshi Son, failed presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg (D-New York), and Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson.
The billionaires are investing in CFS because fusion could theoretically generate enormous amounts of energy without burning fuels or producing greenhouse gases. Thus, whoever commercializes fusion could make billions or trillions of dollars.
Moreover, fusion could save us from Global Warming and Climate Change. To explain, a fusion reactor could theoretically generate enormous amounts of electricity while creating no greenhouse gases. Hence, anybody associated with Fusion could become the world’s greatest hero.
Investors and others need to watch Commonwealth Fusion Systems closely because it could have the ultimate game-changing energy technology. In addition, that technology could generate trillions of dollar in revenue and change the entire economy.
For example, fusion could drive the coal and natural gas industries out of business. Coal and natural gas are the two most common fuels burned to generate electricity.
Watch Commonwealth Fusion Systems because it could lead a fusion revolution that could destroy the energy industry as we know it.
