December 18, 2024
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Will the world’s first fusion power plant be built in Virginia? Here’s why we’re skeptical
The fusion power plant is expected to be operational within the next 10 years, producing 400 megawatts of electricity, according to Commonwealth Fusion Systems.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems’ new fusion power plant will be operational in the early 2030s, producing about 400 megawatts of clean, carbon-free electricity, enough to power a large industrial site or about 150,000 homes. is expected to generate.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), a company originating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has announced that it will build the world’s first fusion power plant within 10 years in an industrial park near Richmond, Virginia. The plant is expected to be operational in the “early 2030s,” and the reactor will produce about 400 megawatts of electricity, according to a news release from MIT on Tuesday. Estimates vary, but one megawatt can power about 400 homes in the United States.
Various stakeholders have described this development as significant. Among them was Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, who issued a statement saying, “This is a historic moment for Virginia and the entire world.” “This could be a watershed moment for fusion,” CFS co-founder and MIT engineering professor Dennis White said in a news release.
But let’s hold off on the nuclear horse for a moment. There are several steps that must be completed before the fusion plant, named ARC (for “Affordable, Robust, and Compact”), can be connected to Virginia’s power grid. For one thing, the CFS demo machine, SPARC (“Smallest Possible ARC”), is not yet complete. The company says that the completed SPARC is expected to produce net energy in 2027. That alone would be an accomplishment.
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Recall, what is a fusion reactor?
Fusion, where atomic nuclei combine and release chunks of energy, is a natural feature of the sun’s plasma. To mimic that process on Earth, fuel pellets (often composed of isotopes of hydrogen) are ignited inside a machine called a tokamak. Tokamaks generate donut-shaped magnetic fields to control ultra-high temperature plasma that is prone to flares. The result would theoretically be energy production without the long-term radioactive waste of nuclear fission or the global warming effects of burned carbon.
Failed promises litter the path to viable fusion. But this time there teeth Among some fusion experts, there was a sense of excitement and rapid acceleration that had been building slowly for decades. By 2022, physicists at the National Ignition Facility in California have predicted that the so-called scientific break-even point – when a nuclear reactor produces more energy than is needed to start a fusion reaction – could be exceeded. It showed that there is.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems’ tokamak fusion reactor design (pictured) utilizes a new type of high-temperature superconducting magnet. The approach was first explored in a graduate school class taught by co-founder and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Dennis White.
The Virginia plant’s tokamak, based on a design created by MIT graduate students, will be particularly compact and economical because it uses a new type of superconducting magnet, White said in a news release.
Why Virginia?
Virginia is home to data center arrays, and the current boom in artificial intelligence, streaming services, and other technologies has made it home to one of the highest concentrations of server farms in the world. These are energy-intensive facilities, and demand is expected to continue to increase. CFS Chief Commercial Officer said: new york times Fusion plants will likely serve industrial customers.
Haven’t I heard it all before?
Nuclear fusion has been studied since the mid-20th century, but it’s the kind of technology that always seems 15 years away. Building artificial stars is difficult. The materials inside a fusion reactor must withstand temperatures of millions of degrees Celsius. And expensive. France’s International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), the largest fusion project on Earth, is behind schedule and over budget, estimated at $6.3 billion by journalist Charles Seif in 2006. It is reported that the initial estimate has increased to $22 billion by 2023. scientific american last year. The fundamental goal of AndITER is to prove that fusion energy is possible, but it is not intended to power anything.
Meanwhile, CFS secured approximately $2 billion in investment. If successful, it would mark the failure of previous attempts by deep-pocketed tech companies. Lockheed Martin began developing a small fusion reactor in 2010. In 2014, the company announced that it would develop a nuclear reactor compact enough to fit on a truck by 2019. However, Lockheed Martin quietly shelved the project by 2021.
