Many privately-funded fusion power experimenters are making noted progress in the absence of much government support to U.S. fusion R&D; one of them said in an April 8 release that it had been able to produce stable plasma at temperatures over 50 million degrees. As TechCrunch reported, the company “sees commercialization by 2030” as a result. This is an experimental reversed-field fusion device operated by TAE Technologies, (formerly Tri-Alpha Energy).
Leaving the commercialization claim aside, this report is of something highly unusual in the history of fusion research: A superhot plasma which becomes more stable, easier to confine, at higher energies and temperatures. To quote TAE’s April 8 press release: “`This is an incredibly rewarding milestone and an apt tribute to the vision of my late mentor, Norman Rostoker,’ said
TAE CEO Michl Binderbauer. ‘Norman and I wrote a paper in the 1990s theorizing that a certain plasma dominated by highly energetic particles [perhaps a hydrogen-boron plasma—ed.] should become increasingly better confined and stable as temperatures increase. We have now been able to demonstrate this plasma behavior with overwhelming evidence. It is a powerful validation of our work over the last three decades, and a very critical milestone for TAE that proves the laws of physics are on our side.’” [https://tae.com/wp-content/uploads/TAE-Milestone-Press-Release.pdf]
Both reversed-field configurations and “self-stabilizing plasmas” were goals that the Fusion Energy Foundation, during the 1970s and 1980s, consistently described and urged fusion researchers to be striving for.
Bloomberg News, always watching the money, headlined April 8 that TAE had “hit funding record with plasma breakthrough.” The company has “raised more than $880 million from backers including Google, Venrock Associates and Kuwait Investment Authority, TAE said in a statement Thursday. That’s more than any other company pursuing fusion.”
