Fusion News

PPPL By John Greenwald | March 16, 2018 (Photo by Elle Starkman/Office of Communications) Physicist Vinícius Duarte, left, with advisor and coauthor Nikolai Gorelenkov. Birds do it and so do doughnut-shaped fusion facilities called “tokamaks.” But tokamak chirping— a rapidly changing frequency wave that can be far above what the human ear can detect — … Read more

Industry and Parliament Trust Thangam Debbonaire, MP for Bristol West visited the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s (UKAEA) Culham Science Centre on Friday 09 March 2018, to learn about the viability of nuclear fusion as a potential energy source, as part of her Industry and Parliament Trust (IPT) Fellowship* exploring renewable energy. The visit was organised … Read more

Record-setting efficiency for generation of neutrons Science News Date: March 14, 2018 Source: Colorado State University Summary: Nuclear fusion, the process that powers our sun, happens when nuclear reactions between light elements produce heavier ones. It’s also happening — at a smaller scale — in a lab. Using a compact but powerful laser to heat … Read more

Newsweek Meghan Bartels On 3/9/18 Every commercial nuclear power plant on the planet right now runs on fission, splitting giant atoms into smaller ones and harnessing the energy that break-down releases. But there’s another way to make nuclear energy—fusion, smooshing two tiny atoms together. And scientists at MIT are launching a new fusion power initiative … Read more

MIT Francesca McCaffrey March 9, 2018 A new chapter is beginning for fusion energy research at MIT. This week the Italian energy company Eni, a founding member of the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), announced it has reached an agreement with MIT to fund fusion research projects run out of the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion … Read more

alphr.com 9 Mar 2018 | By Abigail Beall and Victoria Woollaston Nuclear fusion and nuclear energy has the potential to save the world, but also destroy it The global nuclear threat has ramped up in recent months following claims North Korea is building nuclear weapons and president Donald Trump’s threat against the country’s dangerous leader. … Read more

CCFE 05/03/2018 Professor Howard Wilson returned to Culham as Programme Director at the start of October. He spoke to us about what has changed since he worked here previously, and his hopes for research towards the first demonstration fusion reactors. As well as his CCFE role, Howard is Chair at the University of York as … Read more

Washington Post Dino Grandoni | March 7, 2018 Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the retiring chair of the House Science Committee, has rarely been in agreement with Democrats. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call) The House Science, Space and Technology Committee is known for its partisan bickering. Under Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), Republicans opened probes into … Read more

Reuters March 6, 2018 FILE PHOTO – A man walks past a block of stone with the name of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) organization headquarters in Saint-Paul-lez-Durance, Southern France, October 6, 2016. REUTERS/Jean-Paul Pelissier Bernard Bigot, director-general of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project, or ITER, said the administration’s budget cuts would reduce … Read more

CCFE Nuclear fusion is one of the most promising options for generating large amounts of carbon-free energy in the future. Illustration of the fusion reaction Fusion is the process that heats the Sun and all other stars, where atomic nuclei collide together and release energy (in the form of neutrons, see diagram on the right). … Read more