Commercial fusion ventures learn lessons about engineering and expectations

Commercial fusion ventures learn lessons about engineering and expectations

Geek Wire by Alan Boyle on February 14, 2018 The promise of natural gas, shale oil, renewable energy and conventional nuclear power all pale in comparison to the promise of clean, potentially abundant fusion power — and that’s attracting increasing attention from science-savvy entrepreneurs. General Fusion says it has the world’s largest and most powerful … Read more

Shedding high-power laser light on the plasma density limit

Shedding high-power laser light on the plasma density limit

Space Daily Feb 26, 2018 Interaction of laser light and plasma. (a) Reflection of light. (b) Conventional understanding of the hole boring by intense light. (c) and (d) New concept: the stopping condition of the hole boring sustained by the plasma surface tension. The interaction of high-power laser light sources with matter has given rise … Read more

IPP Summer University for Plasma Physics and Fusion Research

IPP Summer University for Plasma Physics and Fusion Research

Fuse.net The Summer University for Plasma Physics and Fusion Research organised by the Max-Planck Institute for Plasma Physics will be organised between 17th and 21st September in Greifswald, Germany.The lectures are designed for physics and engineering students of European universities who passed their bachelor (undergraduate) courses and not yet started nor decided their PhD project. … Read more

Software upgrade helping to answer DEMO questions

Software upgrade helping to answer DEMO questions

CCFE 27/02/2018 CCFE’s fusion power plant studies are set to benefit from an upgrade to key software code PROCESS. The project to modernise PROCESS is driving greater partnership with fusion researchers abroad as well as making it easier to navigate for key users. Culham researchers use the code to answer complex questions about the design … Read more

One Step Closer to Nuclear Fusion

One Step Closer to Nuclear Fusion

Dartmouth Journal of Undergraduate Science February 24, 2018 | Ted Northup According to a recent report on nuclear fusion, scientists may have discovered an optimal model for regulating plasma turbulence while still achieving desired functional results. A Brazilian researcher, Vinicius Duarte of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, recently developed a conceptual regulation of plasma turbulence … Read more

Fusion Plasma Generator Performance Heats Up

Fusion Plasma Generator Performance Heats Up

Engineering 360 S. Himmelstein | 12 February 2018 The Norman fusion device. Source: TAE Technologies Norman, the proprietary, beam-driven, field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasma generator developed by TAE Technologies, has set a new plasma temperature record for the California-based fusion energy technology company. After more than 4,000 experiments to date, the generator has now exceeded the … Read more

Lithium—it’s not just for batteries: The powdered metal can reduce instabilities in fusion plasmas

Lithium—it’s not just for batteries: The powdered metal can reduce instabilities in fusion plasmas

Phys.org February 6, 2018 by Raphael Rosen Figure showing the location of the two lithium injectors, as well as color images of plasma before and after lithium injection. Red indicates light emitted from both deuterium and lithium, while yellow and orange show lithium line emission. Credit: Rajesh Maingi You may be most familiar with the … Read more

Interview: Jonathan Carling, Tokamak Energy’s new CEO

Interview: Jonathan Carling, Tokamak Energy’s new CEO

The Engineer By Stuart Nathan 22nd February 2018 Tokamak Energy’s new CEO plans on using his commercial nous to get fusion-generated electricity on the National Grid by 2030 Energy generation by nuclear fusion is one of society’s biggest technological challenges. Decades after fusion was first demonstrated, there has been no obvious breakthrough on this front, … Read more

Nuclear Fusion Could Be A Silver Bullet — And Just Around The Corner

Nuclear Fusion Could Be A Silver Bullet — And Just Around The Corner

Forbes Ken Silverstein | FEB 12, 2018 The winding facility of the ITER ( the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), in the CEN of Cadarache, Private investors are now actively trying to commercialize an advanced form of nuclear energy and one that would leave no environmental footprint while also delivering electricity to the world’s expanding population. … Read more

Integrated simulations answer 20-year-old question in fusion research

Integrated simulations answer 20-year-old question in fusion research

MIT News Leda Zimmerman | Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering | February 16, 2018 Study finds that turbulence competes in fusion plasmas to rapidly respond to temperature perturbations. Pablo Rodriguez Fernandez, first author of the study and a graduate student in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering. Photo: Borja Santos Porras To make … Read more