Canadian startup General Fusion creates first plasma
The Canadian company General Fusion is relying on a different concept to other nuclear fusion projects. It has put a demonstration reactor into operation.
Demo reactor LM26 from General Fusion
(Image: General Fusion)
The startup General Fusion is working on nuclear fusion and is taking a different approach to its competitors. For the first time, the Canadians have succeeded in generating a plasma in the Lawson Machine 26 (LM26) reactor.
As can be seen from a video published on YouTube, the first plasma was generated back in February. Since then, this has been happening daily and the team is optimizing performance, the company announced.
General Fusion relies on MTF
General Fusion relies on the concept of Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF), a kind of middle ground between magnetic confinement fusion and inertial confinement fusion – These are the concepts that other fusion researchers are pursuing. In MFF, a kind of rotating cylinder made of a liquid metal is created in the reactor. This serves as a combustion chamber.
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Hot hydrogen plasma is fed into it. The chamber is then compressed using mechanical pistons. The compression compresses the plasma and heats it to around 100 million degrees. This is the temperature required to fuse the hydrogen atoms. The energy released in the process is transported away by the liquid metal.
“Unlike other approaches, MTF is designed from the ground up to produce useful energy,” said General Fusion CEO Greg Twinney. “As a result, our path to providing clean fusion power to homes and businesses downstream of LM26 is simpler and more streamlined than other approaches.”
General Fusion has been working on the MTF concept for over 20 years. Last fall, the company published the first results of experiments showing that the concept could work.
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The next step for the company is to further develop the technology for series production. The plan is to use fusion energy commercially in the next decade.
(wpl)
