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Fusion Company, General Fusion, Announces Achievement in Magnetized Target Fusion Technique

Nuclear fusion's complexity outshines nuclear fission, contrasting the consistent, natural process of the latter that occurs independently of human action, with fusion demanding intricate manipulation.

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3 min read
The intricacies of nuclear fusion often go unacknowledged, contrasting starkly with the simplicity...
The intricacies of nuclear fusion often go unacknowledged, contrasting starkly with the simplicity of nuclear fission. While the latter occurs naturally, without human intervention, in our day-to-day lives, nuclear fusion poses a greater challenge.

Fusion Company, General Fusion, Announces Achievement in Magnetized Target Fusion Technique

Nuclear fusion ain't no walk in the park, mate. It's far more complicated than that old-school nuclear fission we're used to. While fission happens naturally all around us, fusion means beating atoms at their own game, something they seldom do on Earth.

Fusing helium isotopes might be doable these days, but making it efficient and affordable remains tricky. You see, plasma stability is a big ol' issue with the popular magnetic confinement fusion (MCF), like the tokamak. But, fear not! This problem has mostly been tackled now, and designs like stellarators are immune to it.

A Canadian startup, though, thinks they can top that, dreaming up nuclear fusion reactors based on magnetized target fusion (MTF). Even though General Fusion's piston-based fusion reactor leaves folks scratching their heads, MTF is rooted in real physics. And, with their LM26 prototype recently producing its first plasma, it's high time we talk about this baby—is MTF worth competing with those billon-dollar tokamak projects?

Squeezing Plasma Toroids

To achieve nuclear fusion, we gotta push those atoms past the Coulomb barrier, an electrostatic interaction that typically keeps them apart. In stars, this electrostatic force is overwhelmed by sheer pressure, allowing fusion to happen.

Our Earthly attempts at replicating this process involve higher temperatures, alternative pressure methods, and longer confinement times to overcome the Coulomb barrier. MTF tackles this challenge by using a plasma injector, a plasma railgun known as a Marshall gun, and a clever compression system. This sets up a compact toroid, which is then squished in a flash, leading to fusion. General Fusion demonstrated this toroid action with their LM26 prototype's first plasma in the target chamber.

Magneto-Inertial Fusion

MTF isn't just magnetic confinement; it's a blend of magnetic confinement fusion and laser-based inertial confinement fusion. The magnetic fields keep the plasma stable as a toroid, but MCF uses mechanical energy, compressing the low-density plasma toroid like a spring.

The glimpse of General Fusion's experimental setup can be found in their research library. You'll find diagrams and deets on the device's components, operation, and experiments informing its construction. The next move is testing the ring compressor, designed to collapse the lithium liner around the plasma toroid, compress it, and poof! Fusion.

Long Road Ahead

Despite the promising developments, there's still a lot of ground to cover before we can consider MTF a feasible option for commercial fusion. General Fusion aims to switch from the lithium liner used in the LM26 prototype to a liquid one, which will create tritium fuel, provide cooling, and run more cycles per second. Sounds manageable, right? Well, spinning the liquid liner and keeping it in place complicates the design even further.

Getting plasma into the reaction chamber is a huge hurdle, but the real challenge lies in moving from experimental prototypes to a device that integrates all these features, achieves a cycle per second, and outperforms both tokamaks and regular nuclear fission plants, particularly Gen IV fast neutron reactors.

But hey, there's a persuasive argument that MTF is more practical for commercial power generation than inertial confinement fusion. And let's not forget, it's just darn exciting science and engineering.

Top image: General Fusion's Lawson Machine 26. (Credit: General Fusion)

Bonus Insights:

  • Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF): MTF is a method of fusion that creates a compact toroid, a plasma mass surrounded by magnetic fields, and compresses it to achieve fusion conditions. Companies like General Fusion use steam-driven pistons to compress the plasma within a cylinder of liquid metal.
  • Key Features of MTF: MTF involves compact toroid formation and mechanical compression using pistons or similar mechanisms, with the potential for smaller-scale demonstrations and modular design.
  • Tokamak-Based Fusion: Tokamak-based fusion confines plasma within a toroidal vessel using magnetic fields and heats it to achieve sustained fusion. This approach is popular in large-scale projects like ITER and national programs but faces challenges in achieving sustained fusion and handling extreme conditions.
  1. The energy industry is abuzz with the potential of Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) as an alternative to traditional tokamak-based fusion, with General Fusion's Lawson Machine 26 taking a significant stride by producing its first plasma.
  2. Interestingly, MTF combines elements of both magnetic confinement fusion and laser-based inertial confinement fusion, squishing a compact plasma toroid in a flash to initiate fusion. However, commercial feasibility remains elusive, requiring challenges such as spinning liquid liners and achieving a cycle per second to be resolved.
  3. Despite these obstacles, MTF is gaining attention for its potential to outperform both tokamaks and Gen IV fast neutron reactors, offering a more practical option for commercial power generation, all while promising exciting breakthroughs in science and engineering.

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