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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 8–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Bipartisan commission report urges national fusion strategy
In the report Fusion Forward: Powering America’s Future issued earlier this month by the Special Competitive Studies Project’s (SCSP) Commission on the Scaling of Fusion Energy, it warns that the United States is on the verge of losing the fusion power race to China.
Noting that China has invested at least $6.5 billion in its fusion enterprise since 2023, almost three times the funding received by the U.S. Department of Energy’s fusion program over the same period, the commission report urges the U.S. government to prioritize the rapid commercialization of fusion energy to secure U.S. national security and restore American energy leadership.
SCSP is a nonpartisan, nonprofit initiative making recommendations to strengthen America’s long-term competitiveness in emerging technologies. Launched in fall 2024, the 13-member commission is led by Sens. Maria Cantwell (D., Wash.) and Jim Risch (R., Idaho), along with SCSP president and commission co-chair Ylli Bajraktari.
Robert A. Gross
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 305-326
Technical Paper | Special Section Content / Compact Fusion Concept | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A22827
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A compact fusion reactor is one that has a higher power density and, for the same total power, is significantly smaller than a conventional magnetic fusion reactor. This survey reviews the principal physics and technology employed by compact fusion power plants. Each of these concepts has been proposed as a fusion power source and rudimentary power plant designs exist. The concepts reviewed are: compact reversed-field pinch reactors, the Ohmically Heated Toroidal Experiment reactor, TRACT, field-reversed mirror reactor, spheromak, field-reversed theta pinch, compact tokamak reactors, dense Z-pinch reactor, imploding liner reactors, and the wall-confined fusion reactor.