CFS is currently building its SPARC demonstration project outside of Boston, and just installed the first of 18 high-temperature, D-shaped superconducting magnets that power the machinery. The magnets that CFS manufactures are theoretically strong enough to lift an aircraft carrier out of the water, Mumgaard said. SPARC will nearly be completed by the end of 2026 and will produce its first plasma energy in 2027.
“The main argument against fusion is making it work, and that’s why we’re building SPARC and showing that it can work,” Mumgaard told *Fortune* in an interview prior to the keynote. “That will be a big moment for fusion overall, not just for us.”
If SPARC succeeds, CFS’ first commercial fusion plant, ARC, is slated to be built and to come online in the early 2030s just outside of Richmond, Virginia. If all goes as planned, the 400-megawatt plant would become the world’s first fusion plant providing steady power to the grid—enough to power about 300,000 homes.
Whereas traditional nuclear fission energy creates power by splitting atoms, fusion uses heat to create energy by melding them together. In the simplest form, it fuses hydrogen found in water into an extremely hot, electrically charged state known as plasma to create helium—the same process that powers the sun. When executed properly, the process triggers endless reactions to make energy for electricity. But stars rely on overwhelming gravitational pressure to force their fusion. Here on Earth, creating and containing the pressure needed to force the reaction in a consistent, controlled way remains an engineering challenge.
LapsedVerneGagKnee on
Working is one thing. Working at cost efficiency when every special interest group in the US is all but demanding we stick with oil and “beautiful, clean coal” is another thing.
billdietrich1 on
This is a thermal process, right ? Ultimately generating steam ?
Fusion power won’t be “free” or “limitless” or “revolutionary”. Except for maybe the containment building, it still requires all the same stuff that a fission plant does: coolant loops, steam generator, steam turbine, spinning generator, etc. And reactor and controls for a fusion plant will be MORE expensive than those for a fission plant. Nothing limitless about all of this. It all costs money, takes time to build, has to be maintained, wears out. And if you want more energy out, you have to pay more.
West-Abalone-171 on
We already have limitless clean energy. It literally falls from the sky.
Extremely limited, extremely mining intensive, extremely expensive energy will not change this.
Canuck-overseas on
China just broke a record in their fusion research. They are ahead of everyone.
“Researchers using China’s “artificial sun” fusion reactor have broken through a long-standing density barrier in fusion plasma. The experiment confirmed that plasma can remain stable even at extreme densities if its interaction with the reactor walls is carefully controlled. This finding removes a major obstacle that has slowed progress toward fusion ignition.”
wwarnout on
Wow – “nearly ready” makes it sound like we’ll have commercial fusion in a couple weeks, when it is realistically still decades away. Do a search on “tritium problem in fusion reactors” to see how big a problem this really is.
Also, the fusion industry has not been exactly candid about their progress. For example, last year we saw several articles about how they have achieved more energy out than was put it. However, that was misleading, because it didn’t include ALL the energy needed to run the reactor – it only included the energy used for the lasers. We still have a very long way to go before we achieve net power gain on a continuing basis.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m a huge proponent of any energy source (including fusion) that can help us replace fossil fuels. But I’m also a realist, and am not going to get excited about something that is not being represented accurately.
bearsharkbear3 on
Fusion power plants don’t make electricity. They convert hopes and dreams into govt money.
Kaining on
At this point we should all hope it fails catastrophicaly, because the AI “bubble” bursting depends entirely on energy not being free and infinite.
And if it do get there, then climate is more than fucked and the Venus by Thursday apocalypse scenario is locked for good.
8 Comments
From the article
CFS is currently building its SPARC demonstration project outside of Boston, and just installed the first of 18 high-temperature, D-shaped superconducting magnets that power the machinery. The magnets that CFS manufactures are theoretically strong enough to lift an aircraft carrier out of the water, Mumgaard said. SPARC will nearly be completed by the end of 2026 and will produce its first plasma energy in 2027.
“The main argument against fusion is making it work, and that’s why we’re building SPARC and showing that it can work,” Mumgaard told *Fortune* in an interview prior to the keynote. “That will be a big moment for fusion overall, not just for us.”
If SPARC succeeds, CFS’ first commercial fusion plant, ARC, is slated to be built and to come online in the early 2030s just outside of Richmond, Virginia. If all goes as planned, the 400-megawatt plant would become the world’s first fusion plant providing steady power to the grid—enough to power about 300,000 homes.
Whereas traditional nuclear fission energy creates power by splitting atoms, fusion uses heat to create energy by melding them together. In the simplest form, it fuses hydrogen found in water into an extremely hot, electrically charged state known as plasma to create helium—the same process that powers the sun. When executed properly, the process triggers endless reactions to make energy for electricity. But stars rely on overwhelming gravitational pressure to force their fusion. Here on Earth, creating and containing the pressure needed to force the reaction in a consistent, controlled way remains an engineering challenge.
Working is one thing. Working at cost efficiency when every special interest group in the US is all but demanding we stick with oil and “beautiful, clean coal” is another thing.
This is a thermal process, right ? Ultimately generating steam ?
Fusion power won’t be “free” or “limitless” or “revolutionary”. Except for maybe the containment building, it still requires all the same stuff that a fission plant does: coolant loops, steam generator, steam turbine, spinning generator, etc. And reactor and controls for a fusion plant will be MORE expensive than those for a fission plant. Nothing limitless about all of this. It all costs money, takes time to build, has to be maintained, wears out. And if you want more energy out, you have to pay more.
We already have limitless clean energy. It literally falls from the sky.
Extremely limited, extremely mining intensive, extremely expensive energy will not change this.
China just broke a record in their fusion research. They are ahead of everyone.
“Researchers using China’s “artificial sun” fusion reactor have broken through a long-standing density barrier in fusion plasma. The experiment confirmed that plasma can remain stable even at extreme densities if its interaction with the reactor walls is carefully controlled. This finding removes a major obstacle that has slowed progress toward fusion ignition.”
Wow – “nearly ready” makes it sound like we’ll have commercial fusion in a couple weeks, when it is realistically still decades away. Do a search on “tritium problem in fusion reactors” to see how big a problem this really is.
Also, the fusion industry has not been exactly candid about their progress. For example, last year we saw several articles about how they have achieved more energy out than was put it. However, that was misleading, because it didn’t include ALL the energy needed to run the reactor – it only included the energy used for the lasers. We still have a very long way to go before we achieve net power gain on a continuing basis.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m a huge proponent of any energy source (including fusion) that can help us replace fossil fuels. But I’m also a realist, and am not going to get excited about something that is not being represented accurately.
Fusion power plants don’t make electricity. They convert hopes and dreams into govt money.
At this point we should all hope it fails catastrophicaly, because the AI “bubble” bursting depends entirely on energy not being free and infinite.
And if it do get there, then climate is more than fucked and the Venus by Thursday apocalypse scenario is locked for good.