MIT research scientists Pablo Rodriguez-Fernandez and Nathan Howard predict the temperature and density profiles of a magnetically confined plasma via first-principles simulation of plasma turbulence.
As Martin Greenwald retires from the PSFC, he reflects on time at MIT, pursuing the question of how to make the carbon-free energy of fusion a reality.
In this episode of Undecided, after providing a primer on fusion and fission, Matt Ferrell interviews the PSFC's Deputy Director Martin Greenwald about the fusion breakthrough at MIT.
On Sunday, September 5, 2021, a large-bore, high temperature superconducting magnet designed and built by CFS and MIT reached a field of 20 tesla. It paves the way to building SPARC and commercializing fusion energy. These are highlights from the Live-Streamed 20 Tesla HTS Magnet Demo Event
On Sept. 5, 2021, for the first time, a large high-temperature superconducting electromagnet was ramped up to a field strength of 20 tesla, the most powerful magnetic field of its kind ever created on Earth. That successful demonstration by the PSFC and CFS helps resolve the greatest uncertainty in the quest to build the world’s first fusion power plant that can produce more power than it consumes.
An animation of how the high temperature superconducting (HTS) fusion magnet built by MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) and Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS)was tested. Reaching a field of 20 tesla, it is the most powerful superconducting magnet in the world and a key technology in SPARC, a compact, high-field tokamak that will produce net energy from fusion.
This series of papers provides a high level of confidence in the plasma physics and the performance predictions for SPARC. No unexpected impediments or surprises have shown up, and the remaining challenges appear to be manageable. This sets a solid basis for the device’s operation once constructed, according to Martin Greenwald, Deputy Director of MIT PSFC.
Nathan Howard, research scientist at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, has won the 2019 Nuclear Fusion Award for a paper that explains heat losses due to turbulence in the core of magnetically confined fusion plasmas.
The future of fusion energy is right around the corner. You'll find it off Massachusetts Avenue, on Albany Street in Cambridge. It's on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in an old, low-rise, brown brick building once owned by Nabisco.
MIT graduate student Caroline Sorensen is using her talent for mechanical engineering to help advance a novel project within the domain of applied science: the commercialization of fusion energy.
The Fusion Power Associates Board of Directors has awarded its 2018 Leadership Award to Prof. Dennis Whyte, Director of MIT’s PSFC and Head of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering.
Liquid nitrogen flowed and plasma glowed at MIT’s Energy Night as PSFC graduate students demonstrated how fusion happens, and how MIT is working with a new superconducting technology to make It happen sooner at less cost.
Systems programmer and analyst Tom Fredian, who has worked at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) since 1982, credits a fork in his career road for leading to his deep interest in computers and software development.
MIT and CFS will collaborate to carry out rapid, staged research leading to a new generation of fusion experiments and power plants based on advances in high-temperature superconductors.
Today, MIT announced plans to work with a newly formed company, Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), to realize the promise of fusion as a source of unlimited, safe, carbon-free energy.