Last December, Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) broke ground on their new 47-acre site, 50 miles northwest of Boston. It will be the home of the next-generation experimental nuclear fusion reactor. The site is the result of $1.8B in venture funding raised by the firm to explore the possibility of unlimited clean energy.
Nuclear fusion powers the sun and hydrogen bombs. Scientists have worked for decades to harness this holy grail of clean energy for peaceful use, but no laboratory yet has generated positive net energy—i.e., gotten more energy out of the reaction than was put in to get it started. Since 2007, the primary focus has been on ITER, a $20B+ multi-governmental reactor being constructed in France. It is scheduled for completion in 2035. CFS was founded in 2018 to commercialize research results from the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center. CFS’s reactor, SPARC, is 1/40th the size of ITER and less than 1/10th the cost. It uses a new kind of high-temperature superconducting magnet that is twice as powerful as ITER’s magnets. (Magnetism is used to “heat and squeeze” hydrogen gas into helium gas; the reaction releases vast amounts of energy.) By 2025, CFS hopes to generate 10 times the energy from the reaction than it consumes. Calculations predict SPARC should be able to produce 200 MW of electricity, enough for a mid-sized city—and it’s only a prototype.
Nuclear fusion is of paramount importance to our world. It provides an opportunity for cheap, unlimited clean energy that could help stop global warming. Moreover, it will change the world order. Nuclear fusion is likely the next preconditioning innovation. These have historically led to major societal shifts. That it is being constructed in the US is of unbelievable benefit for America.
Many technical challenges still lie ahead, however (e.g., how well will the construction hold-up when 18 superconducting magnets are operating at the same time). Nevertheless, if the prototype proves successful, small fusion power plants could begin to appear in the 2030s. Then the world will change faster than it has since the 16th century. Hang onto your seats.
Source:
James Temple, “A New Superconducting Magnet Revives Fusion Dreams,” MIT Technology Review, vol 125, no 2, Mar-Apr 2022
“What is a Megawatt,” Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 24 Feb 2012, accessed from https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1209/ML120960701.pdf
Photo: CFS