TAE has produced a stable plasma at 50,000,000°C within a compact reactor and repeated this over hundreds of testing cycles. They have had over 25,000 fully integrated fusion reactor core experiments. The experiments were optimized with machine learning from a collaboration with Google. The current goal is a commercial fusion power plant by 2030. They …
Read moreTAE Technologies Targets Commercial Nuclear Fusion by 2030
The Helicity Drive concept is a novel magneto-inertial fusion concept designed for a fusion space propulsion system. It has promising Lawson criterion performance scaling with input geometry resulting in power output that is uniquely scalable across thrust power classes (10s kW to GW levels) at high specific power. It exploits magnetic reconnection as a fast, …
Fission/fusion hybrid and pulsed fusion propulsion have been shown to significantly reduce the trip times for space travel. The specific approach being pursued at UAH PRC is called z-pinch. Jason Cassibry has been funded by Limitless Space Institute to study and advance 100 kev nuclear pinch propulsion. They have a near-term goal of scaling to …
Direct Drive Centrifugal Fusion has achieved 25 MW for parts of demonstrations in the lab. The ISP is 60 times too high for an optimal Mars mission and the thrust is 60 times too low. They have received a Limitless Space Institute grant and are working towards improving their system to become practical for rapid …
Limitless Space Institute is sponsoring student programs and giving away about $2 million every two years in grants for work towards enabling interstellar travel. They gave out nine grants. Limitless Space Institute is working with the Breakthrough Institute. Limitless Space Institute is led by Sonny White. Sonny White and his team is also working on …
Read moreLimitless Space Institute for Interstellar Travel by 2100
A Masters Thesis analyzed a mission to Saturn’s moon Titan using the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory Direct Drive Fusion system. The Direct Fusion Drive (DFD) is based on a D-3He fueled, aneutronic, thermonuclear fusion propulsion system. He considered a 2-MW-class single DFD module, which provides 8 N of constant thrust and a specific impulse of …
Read morePath to Megawatt Direct Drive Fusion Propulsion Has No Scientific Roadblocks
Commonwealth Fusion Systems new high-temperature superconductor (HTS) cable can be engineered into magnets directly applicable to the high magnetic field approach to fusion. The new HTS cable, called VIPER, can carry over fifty thousand amps of current with magnetic fields over 10 Tesla. Some fusion magnets need to turn on and off continually. VIPER was …
Read moreHigh-Temperature Superconductor Cable Will Speed Up Development of Nuclear Fusion
The SPARC Fusion reactor team have made good theoretical progress to the goal of a commercial nuclear fusion reactor. SPARC is a compact, high-field, DT burning tokamak, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Commonwealth Fusion Systems. The SPARC design with a 12.2 tesla magnetic field and 8.7 megaamps and Ion Cyclotron Range of Frequency …
LPP fusion discovered the FF-2B’s prototype anode was cracked. They have used the shutdown time, necessitated by both the crack and the coronavirus, to complete the design of our new switches, and to redesign the anode. They are aiming to resume firing with these crucial new upgrades in the fall. This will allow us to …
Read moreLPP Fusion Redesigns to Overcome Hurdles to High Yield Fusion
A team at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility led by a William & Mary physicist has made a significant advancement in physics understanding that represents a key step toward practical fusion energy. The work, published in an article in the journal Nuclear Fusion, helps better explain the relationship among three variables – plasma turbulence, the …
Read moreProgress in Better Understanding Tokomak Fusion Physics
