User:Stonecampbellc/Commonwealth Fusion Systems

Technology

SPARC, through breakthrough energy technologies, will allow CFS to get commercial fusion energy on the grid as soon as possible. SPARC is designed with the collective and proven knowledge of the fusion programs around the world. SPARC is also using established plasma physics as well as the greatest tools that are advanced simulations, data analysis, and science from existing machines. The magnet technology used in SPARC will give "the world a clear path to fusion power," according to the CFS CEO Bob Mumgaard. Mumgaard also states that the world needs a new form of technology to slow climate change by efforts to decarbonize on a timeline. This magnet technology allows CFS to produce clean, limitless energy for the world.

CFS uses newly commercially available high-temperature superconductors to construct the magnets that will allow much stronger magnetic fields in a device called a tokamak. These high-temperature superconductor magnets will allow a high field approach that will lead to CFS reaching net energy from fusion with a device that is much smaller, cheaper, and can be done much quicker.

Tokamaks work as donut-shaped devices that use magnets to manipulate and insulate the plasma where fusion occurs. The SPARC is predicted to be burning plasma which would be the first time on earth. This would mean that the fusion process would be predominantly self-heating. Nothing has achieved net energy from fusion but tokamaks have been the closest to net energy. Tokamaks use low-temperature superconducting magnets that need to be massive in size to create the magnetic field that is necessary to achieve net energy. The CFS high-temperature superconductor magnets will create much stronger magnetic fields and due to it, the tokamaks can be much smaller.

Fusion Energy

Fusion power is a much cleaner alternative to energy. Fusion power plants compared to other plants will be carbon-free, dispatchable, have an unlimited fuel supply, and are safer than other forms of power plants. Fusion energy is on the rise with projects such as a multinational $25 billion International Thermonuclear Reactor which is under construction in southern France with the goal of beginning operations in late 2025 and actually producing power a decade later. But now thanks to private enterprise the opportunity of spreading this technology is only increasing. Commercial Projects hoping to bring include Tokamak Energy of Oxford, England; General Fusion of Vancouver, Canada; TAE Technologies of California, United States; First Light Fusion, a University of Oxford spin-off; and lastly Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a spinout of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In late 2021, CFS raised $1.8 billion in funding to commercialize fusion energy. This money would be put towards the capital to construct, commission, and operate SPARC, the first commercially relevant net energy fusion machine. With that in place, CFS can begin to work on ARC, the first commercial fusion plant. The work ARC to make a well-functioning power plant includes a variety of things such as developing support technologies, advancing the design, identifying the site, and assembling the partners and customers for the future of nuclear power.