Electromagnetics

Big Magnets & Big Money Power High-Stakes Race to Commercialize Fusion Energy 

Big magnets and big money are at the core of a high stakes race to commercialize fusion energy, aiming ultimately to transform the world’s energy supply with the immense power of zero-carbon fusion. This article highlights the progress of two pioneering companies located only a two-hour drive apart — General Fusion in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada and Helion in Everett, Washington in the U.S. The technologies of both companies rely on powerful electromagnets, eschewing the use of more expensive and complex superconducting magnets typically used in tokamaks. […]

Electromagnetics

New Stellarator Design Points the Way for Future Fusion Power Plants 

Using a new approach, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald, Germany have developed a stellarator design that fulfils all the basic physics requirements for a viable fusion power plant. Inside the complex magnetic coils of a stellarator, the new design limits toroidal current in the plasma. […]

Electromagnetics

National Fusion Facility Achieves Milestone 

The DIII-D National Fusion Facility in San Diego, home of the largest magnetic fusion research machine in the U.S., recently surpassed its 200,000th experimental cycle since it began operations, marking an important milestone in the development of clean fusion energy. Referred to as “shots,” each of these tests and discharges have advanced the U.S. fusion research program’s collective understanding of how to create, shape, and confine plasmas to support the development of fusion as a source of base-load energy in the future. […]