• World-first plasma confinement via levitated magnet achieved to unlock nuclear fusion This design mimics planetary magnetic structures, such as Jupiter’s. • A 0.5-tonne superconducting magnet recently hovered silently inside a 5-meter-wide vacuum chamber, which marked a major milestone for New Zealand-based nuclear fusion startup OpenStar Technologies. • The team successfully confined plasma heated to over 1,000,000 degrees Celsius, utilizing a $10,000,000 prototype dubbed “Junior” to prove their unique reactor architecture. • “The levitated dipole configuration offers distinct advantages in plasma stability and confinement that we believe position it as a viable route to commercial fusion energy,” said the company. • By demonstrating that a heavy magnet can be controlled and levitated while simultaneously confining superheated gas, the engineering team has addressed a primary requirement of this specific reactor architecture. • The magnetic field produced by the suspended hardware is designed to hold the plasma in place.
Article Summaries:
- World-first plasma confinement via levitated magnet achieved to unlock nuclear fusion This design mimics planetary magnetic structures, such as Jupiter’s. A 0.5-tonne superconducting magnet recently hovered silently inside a 5-meter-wide vacuum chamber, which marked a major milestone for New Zealand-based nuclear fusion startup OpenStar Technologies. The team successfully confined plasma heated to over 1,000,000 degrees Celsius, utilizing a $10,000,000 prototype dubbed “Junior” to prove their unique reactor architecture. “The levitated dipole configuration offers distinct advantages in plasma
Sources: