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From supermagnets to the first reactor, the technological breakthrough for magnetic confinement fusion

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From supermagnets to the first reactor, the technological breakthrough for magnetic confinement fusion

The society Commonwealth Fusion Systemspin-out del Mit (Massacchusets Institute for Technology) is working to develop by the early 2030s the first commercial fusion plant connected to the electricity gridnamed Arc. It is a project in which he is also investing Eniwhich in addition to financial support provides resources and industrial know-how.

The goal is to reproduce on Earth the physical reaction that powers the Sun and other stars. A process that, with the fusion of two hydrogen atoms, releases a large amount of energy without emitting greenhouse gases. It is a very complicated technological challenge, but national and international research centers are working on it with the aim of providing an alternative source of energy capable of satisfying our needs. The program of Commonwealth Fusion System (Cfs) in fact, it aims to achieve fusion inside so-called magnetic confinement reactors. Spin-out of the Withthe company collaborates with MIT itself and with private investment groups to develop within the early years of the 2030s Arc, the first commercial plant complete with systems for neutron collection and energy production, capable of feeding into the grid electricity with zero CO2 emissions.

A project in which he also strongly believes Eniwhich in 2018 invested $ 50 million in Cfs and is today one of the main shareholders through Eni Nexthis corporate venture capital firm.

The energy company, which is part of the board of directors of Cfsparticipates in research on magnetic confinement fusion, to favor the decarbonization process, not only with its financial support but also by actively collaborating with the start-up, for example, by providing resources and industrial know-how.

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The development path

The making of Arc is the goal of a development project which is divided into several stages and which sees in the magnetic confinement technology the great technological challenge to overcome. The fusion reaction in fact uses a mixture of elements as fuel, namely deuterium and tritium, two isotopes of hydrogen. To fuse two cores of these elements together, temperatures of hundreds of millions of degrees must be reached. The thermal agitation that allows the fusion takes place in an ionized gas at very high temperature called plasma. The technical problem to be solved is precisely the management of the plasma, which must be contained and kept suspended inside the reactor. Technology Tokamak comes to the aid: it is a donut-shaped device which, thanks to a magnetic field generated by superconducting magnets (which can be crossed by very intense currents without electrical resistance), allows to create and control the plasma, which does not enter contact with the walls of the machine.

High temperature superconducting tape spool used in the new class of fusion magnets. The magnet built and jointly tested by CFS and MIT contains 267 km (166 miles) of tape, which is the distance that separates Boston, MA, from Albany, New York. Credits: Gretchen Ertl, CFS / MIT-PSFC, 2021

The super magnets made by Commonwealth Fusion Systems they employ innovative superconductors, defined as “high temperature” (Hts, High Temperature Superconductors) which allow the construction of much more compact, simple and efficient reactors than those conceived so far. In September 2021, the first supermagnete prototype equipped with this technology was tested.

Designed and built by Commonwealth Fusion Systems and MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center (Psfc), this high-temperature superconducting magnet features a wide range and large diameter and has been shown to achieve a record magnetic field of 20 tesla. .  It is the most powerful fusion magnet in the world.  Credits: Gretchen Ertl, CFS / MIT-PSFC, 2021

Designed and built by Commonwealth Fusion Systems and MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center (Psfc), this high-temperature superconducting magnet features a wide range and large diameter and has been shown to achieve a record magnetic field of 20 tesla. . It is the most powerful fusion magnet in the world. Credits: Gretchen Ertl, CFS / MIT-PSFC, 2021

An important date along this path is 2025, when Cfs provides for the construction of the first experimental reactor. It will be called Sparc and will have a diameter of about four meters: it will be less powerful than the fusion reactor of the Iter project, but it will also be smaller and easier to build. Sparc will be used to manage the plasma to create the conditions for controlled fusion and will be the test bed for the development of Arc.

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