Start-Ups Seek to Accelerate Path to Nuclear Fusion

• 作者: Mitch Leslie
• 来源期刊: 工程（英文）
• 年，卷（期）: 2022,（1）
• 所属期刊栏目: News & Highlights
• 页码范围: 6-8
• 页数: 3页
• 语种: 英文

摘要

In September 2021,the world's most powerful high-tempera-ture superconducting magnet passed its first test,generating a 20 T magnetic field during a 5 h trial[1].The 3 m tall,9000 kg device(Fig.1)is the centerpiece of an ambitious plan by the start-up Commonwealth Fusion Systems,headquartered in Cambridge,MA,USA,to build a fusion reactor that produces more energy than it requires to stimulate and sustain its nuclear reactions[2,3].None of the experimental fusion approaches that scientists have tested has come close to that mark.Even the multi-billion USD International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor(ITER),the massive project sponsored by 35 countries that is under construction in southern France(Fig.2),is not projected to pass the breakeven point until the mid-2030s at the earliest[2,4].But Commonwealth Fusion Systems aims to have a pilot plant operating by 2025.