Edward Conard

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Upside of Inequality Oxford Unintended Consequences

AI Summary. A New Zealand nuclear fusion start-up says it created and contained a plasma cloud at about 300,000 degrees Celsius for 20 seconds in under two years for less than $10mn, using a design that levitates a superconducting magnet inside the plasma rather than outside the chamber.

Malcolm Moore Financial Times
Date Posted:
Is Database:
Database

A New Zealand-based startup claims to have created a 300,000°C plasma cloud for 20 seconds using an “inside-out” tokamak, which contains superheated plasma using a high-temperature superconducting magnet inside the reactor.

Can an inside-out reactor design speed up fusion development at lower cost?

Core argument: OpenStar, a New Zealand start-up, says it created and contained a plasma cloud at around 300,000°C for 20 seconds in its first experimental reactor, achieved in under two years and for less than $10mn.

A small start-up in New Zealand claims it has created plasma, the first step towards nuclear fusion, in under two years and for less than $10mn after experimenting with an unconventional reactor design. OpenStar, founded by chief executive Ratu Mataira in 2021 in his Wellington apartment, said on Tuesday that it had created and contained a plasma cloud at around 300,000 degrees Celsius for 20 seconds in its first experimental reactor. While much higher plasma temperatures are required to achieve nuclear fusion, OpenStar’s test stands apart for its unconventional reactor design, which the company said could be faster to scale and commercialise. Mataira said OpenStar’s breakthrough had been to turn the tokamak design “inside out”. Instead of magnets outside the chamber, OpenStar levitates a high-temperature superconducting magnet inside the superheated plasma, which is then kept within the magnet’s north-to-south field lines. This allows the plasma, which is so hot it would destroy any material it touches, to be contained inside a vacuum chamber.

Takeaways by Macro Roundup® AI

  1. OpenStar, a New Zealand start-up, says it created and contained a plasma cloud at around 300,000°C for 20 seconds in its first experimental reactor, achieved in under two years and for less than $10mn.
  2. OpenStar's reactor turns the tokamak design "inside out," levitating a high-temperature superconducting magnet inside the plasma and containing the plasma within the magnet's north-to-south field lines in a vacuum chamber.
  3. Much higher plasma temperatures than OpenStar's 300,000°C are required to achieve nuclear fusion, though the company says its unconventional design could be faster to scale and commercialise.

Related Articles:

  • WHAM! Nuclear Fusion Experiment Hits New Record for Magnet Strength — A nuclear fusion experiment at the University of Wisconsin-Madison set a record for the strongest steady magnetic field confining a plasma, reaching 17 tesla — more than twice the field strength used by high-resolution MRI brain scanners. The high-temperature superconducting magnets were built by startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems.
  • US Scientists Repeat Fusion Power Breakthrough — Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory achieved net energy gain in a fusion reaction for a second time, with preliminary results indicating the experiment produced a higher energy output than the first ignition.
  • China Outspends the U.S. on Fusion in the Race for Energy’s Holy Grail — Scientists familiar with China's fusion facilities estimate that at its current pace of spending and development, China will surpass U.S. and European magnetic fusion capabilities within three or four years. Much U.S. fusion spending goes to legacy programs, while China's roughly $1.5bn is largely directed at building systems that would compete with leading private U.S. fusion firms.
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