2020 ANS Virtual Winter Meeting: Fusion technology start-ups showcased at TOFE 2020Nuclear NewsNovember 19, 2020, 9:30AM|Nuclear News StaffThe Fusion Enterprise-I and -II sessions, held on November 18 as part of the TOFE 2020 embedded topical meeting at the 2020 ANS Virtual Winter Meeting, were chaired by Ales Necas, principal scientist at TAE Technologies, and featured presentations by speakers representing companies in the commercial fusion area.Magnetized target fusion: Michel Laberge, founder and chief science officer of General Fusion in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, started his talk with a description of magnetized target fusion science—the fusion equivalent of a diesel engine using pistons and compression. Most of his talk, however, was devoted to a tale of life as a start-up company. Laberge described starting his company taking no salary and with a small staff, and, as the company grew, having to pay attention to funding on one hand and technology advancement on the other.The simplest machine: Jamie Darling, lead engineer at First Light Fusion, based near Oxford in the United Kingdom, discussed his company’s goal of solving the problem of fusion power with the simplest machine possible. First Light’s inertial confinement approach utilizes a very small (but fast) projectile impacting a target. Darling gave an overview of First Light’s approach and facilities, followed by details of the economic model for the technology’s feasibility in an ever more crowded commercial fusion environment.Medical isotopes: Greg Piefer, of SHINE Medical Technologies in Janesville, Wis., described starting out his career with an eye toward fusion energy before pivoting to focus on fusion neutron applications as part of Phoenix Nuclear Labs (now known as Phoenix LLC). SHINE was spun off to develop transmutation technologies using fusion neutrons, the earliest application being the production of medical isotopes such as lutetium-177 and molybdenum-99. SHINE is nearing the completion of what will be the world’s largest Mo-99 production facility and aims to bring reliability to the supply. Future goals for transmutation technology include recycling and destruction of nuclear waste.Transition challenge: David Kingham, of Tokamak Energy, near Oxford, United Kingdom, posed the question, “Why now for fusion?” The answer he gave is that the confluence of established science, new technology, private investment, and the energy transition challenge (that is, deep decarbonization) has created the conditions for a race among fusion designs. Tokamak Energy’s focus is on the new technology aspect—specifically, high-temperature superconducting magnets, which it plans to use in a spherical tokamak design, with the ambitious goals of building a demonstration device by 2025 and connecting to the electric grid around 2030.Spheromak technology: Derek Sutherland, cofounder and chief executive officer of CTFusion in Seattle, Wash., gave an overview of the spheromak technology that his company is developing. His talk covered a summary of past results and ongoing R&D activities at the company, highlighting the benefits of spheromak designs over other fusion designs. CTFusion’s devices are in the exploration and proof-of-concept stages.Neutron applications: Ross Radel, of Phoenix LLC, near Madison, Wis., gave a presentation on the company’s steady-state fusion neutron generation technology. As mentioned above, SHINE Medical Technologies split off from Phoenix to focus on medical isotope applications, leaving Phoenix to take a broader approach. The company recently opened a neutron imaging center that is in commercial operation.The Fusion Enterprise series wrapped up with a panel discussion featuring several of the speakers mentioned above, and others. Registered meeting attendees can watch the session recordings online at answinter.org.Tags:ans winter meetingfusiontofeShare:LinkedInTwitterFacebook
ITER updates: Components, commitments converge toward first plasmaThe ITER site in Cadarache, France. Photo: ITER OrganizationWith first plasma operations at ITER planned for 2025, milestones are being reached in quick succession. While several of the 35 countries contributing to the construction of the super-sized fusion tokamak are pursuing fusion programs of their own, they remain committed to ITER and are eager for the data and operating experience it is expected to yield.Euratom leads the project being built in Cadarache, France, as the host party for ITER. On February 22, the European Council approved the continuation of European financing of ITER from 2021 to 2027, with a contribution of €5.61 billion (about $6.86 billion) in current prices.Go to Article
A new goal for fusion: 50 MWe for the U.S. grid by 2035–2040Coordinated federal and private industry investments made now could yield an operational fusion pilot plant in the 2035–2040 time frame, according to Bringing Fusion to the U.S. Grid, a consensus study report released February 17 by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM).Developed at the request of the Department of Energy, the report builds on the work of the 2019 Final Report of the Committee on a Strategic Plan for U.S. Burning Plasma Research, and it identifies key goals, innovations, and investments needed to develop a U.S. fusion pilot plant that can serve as a model for producing electricity at the lowest possible capital cost.“The U.S. fusion community has been a pioneer of fusion research since its inception and now has the opportunity to bring fusion to the marketplace,” said Richard Hawryluk, associate director for fusion at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and chair of the NASEM Committee on the Key Goals and Innovations Needed for a U.S. Fusion Pilot Plant, which produced the report.Go to Article
Former secretary of state George Shultz dies at 100SchultzGeorge P. Shultz, a former U.S. secretary of state who played a central role in helping bring the Cold War to an end, died Saturday at 100, the Hoover Institution at Stanford University announced.ANS connection: Shultz, an ANS member, was honored during the 2020 ANS Virtual Winter Meeting with a celebration of his 100th birthday. He provided recorded comments on the increasing challenges facing policy decisions related to climate change, artificial intelligence, and advanced manufacturing/3D printing. Former senator Sam Nunn reviewed Shultz’s “500 years' worth” of accomplishments and service to the United States.ANS has issued a statement on the passing of George Schultz.Go to Article
Big fusion moment coming soon, Popular Mechanics saysRendering of SPARC, a compact, high-field, DT burning tokamak, currently under design by a team from MIT and CFS. Source: CFS/MIT-PSFC - CAD Rendering by T. HendersonThe fusion community is reaching a "Kitty Hawk moment" as early as 2025, according to the Popular Mechanics story, "Jeff Bezos Is Backing an Ancient Kind of Nuclear Fusion."That moment will come from magnetized target fusion (MTF), the January 25 story notes, a technology that dates back to the 1970s when the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory first proposed it. Now, however, MTF’s proponents say that the technology is bearing down to reach the commercial power market. The question is, Will it be viable before the competing fusion model of tokamaks, such as ITER, start operations?Go to Article
U.K., Japan to research remote D&D, fusion systemsThe LongOps project will develop innovative robotic technologies. Photo: UKAEABritain and Japan have signed a research and technology deployment collaboration to help automate nuclear decommissioning and aspects of fusion energy production. According to the U.K. government, which announced the deal on January 20, the £12 million (about $16.5 million) U.K.–Japanese robotics project, called LongOps, will support the delivery of faster and safer decommissioning at the Fukushima Daiichi reactors in Japan and at Sellafield in the United Kingdom, using long-reach robotic arms.The four-year collaboration on new robotics and automation techniques will also be applied to fusion energy research in the two countries.Funded equally by U.K. Research and Innovation, the U.K.’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, and Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Company, the LongOps project will be led by the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority’s (UKAEA) Remote Applications in Challenging Environments (RACE) facility.Go to Article
Understanding the ITER Project in the context of global Progress on Fusion(photo: ITER Project gangway assembly)The promise of hydrogen fusion as a safe, environmentally friendly, and virtually unlimited source of energy has motivated scientists and engineers for decades. For the general public, the pace of fusion research and development may at times appear to be slow. But for those on the inside, who understand both the technological challenges involved and the transformative impact that fusion can bring to human society in terms of the security of the long-term world energy supply, the extended investment is well worth it.Failure is not an option.Go to Article
General Fusion boasts backing from Shopify, Amazon foundersShopify founder Tobias Lütke is backing General Fusion with an undisclosed capital investment through his Thistledown Capital investment firm, the Canadian fusion technology firm announced January 14.In an article published the same day by TechCrunch, Jonathan Shieber noted that a separate investments by Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon, first made through his venture capital fund nearly a decade ago, means General Fusion “has the founders of the two biggest e-commerce companies in the Western world on its cap table.”Go to Article
Fusion and the bounty of electricityFrom the time we discovered how the sun produces energy, we have been captivated by the prospect of powering our society using the same principles of nuclear fusion. Fusion energy promises the bounty of electricity we need to live our lives without the pollution inherent in fossil fuels, such as oil, gas, and coal. In addition, fusion energy is free from the stigma that has long plagued nuclear power about the storage and handling of long-lived radioactive waste products, a stigma from which fission power is only just starting to recover in green energy circles. Go to Article
The year in review 2020: Research and ApplicationsHere is a look back at the top stories of 2020 from our Research and Applications section in Newswire and Nuclear News magazine. Remember to check back to Newswire soon for more top stories from 2020.Research and Applications sectionARDP picks divergent technologies in Natrium, Xe-100: Is nuclear’s future taking shape? The Department of Energy has put two reactor designs—TerraPower’s Natrium and X-energy’s Xe-100—on a fast track to commercialization, each with an initial $80 million in 50-50 cost-shared funds awarded through the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. Read more.Go to Article
Powering the future: Fusion advisory committee sets prioritiesThe Fusion Energy Science Advisory Committee (FESAC), which is responsible for advising the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, on December 4 published the first public draft of Powering the Future: Fusion and Plasmas, a 10-year vision for fusion energy and plasma science. FESAC was charged with developing a long-range plan in November 2018.The scope: The report, which is meant to catch the eye of leaders in the DOE, Congress, and the White House, details the needs of the fusion and plasma program identified by a FESAC subcommittee—the DOE Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee for Long Range Planning—with the help of the fusion research community. The yearlong Phase 1 of the Community Planning Process, organized under the auspices of the American Physical Society’s Division of Plasma Physics, gathered input and yielded a strategic plan that is reflected in the FESAC’s draft report.Go to Article