Nuclear fusion researchers have just claimed a “watershed” moment in the development of practical nuclear fusion. They were talking about a successful test of a powerful magnet that they say is the key to future generation of unlimited zero-carbon energy.
    Partners Commonwealth Fusion systems (CFS) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) claim that the creation of a record-breaking magnetic field for the first time “opens a clear path” to commercial nuclear fusion power. Some analysts believe that nuclear fusion is the “holy grail” of clean energy while other analysts believe that the quest for nuclear fusion power is only a distraction from green tech such as wind and solar.
     CFS is a technology start-up backed by investors which include Bill Gates and fossil energy companies Eni and Equinor. They said that they were successful in generating a magnetic field of twenty tesla, the most powerful field of its type using a high temperature superconducting (HTS) magnet technology that will sit at the heart of planned nuclear fusion systems.
      Dennis White is the Director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center and a professor of engineering. He said that the September 5th test answers a key question about the viability of small-scale tokamaks such as the kind being developed by CFS. These small tokamaks are claimed to offer the quickest practical route to commercial nuclear fusion.
      Whyte said, “It’s really a watershed moment, I believe, in fusion science and technology. Fusion will be an inexhaustible, carbon-free source of energy that you can deploy anywhere and at any time. It’s really a fundamentally new energy source”.
      Bob Mumgaard is the CEO of CFS. He claimed that “This record-breaking magnet is the culmination of the last three years of work and will give the world a clear path to fusion power for the first time.” Mumgaard told an interviewer that fusion could play a critical role in energy transition by “filling in the gaps” left by wind and solar.
      The CFS-MIT team said that the scientific milestone keeps the project on course to demonstrate the net generation of energy from nuclear fusion by 2025. This will be followed by commercial scale devices that generate thermal energy that could be captured to produce power in a conventional steam turbine style.
     Mumgaard admitted that even if the first commercial fusion systems appear in the early 2030s, deployment of commercial fusion to generate power on a gigawatt scale would not happen “until the latter half of the 2030s at the earliest”. Mumgaard claimed that that fact does not undermine the case for fusion technology. He said, “If you look at other technologies and markets, and what’s needed, that’s in the range where you’re at the time where problems are getting really hard on carbon emissions, because you’ve taken all the easy gains.”
     Nuclear fusion researchers are emphatic in distinguishing nuclear fusion technology from nuclear fission technology currently in use around the globe. Despite the current buzz around fusion research, the physics involved has proven to be incredibly complex and difficult. There is a standing joke that fusion power is always forty years away.
    So far, there are no solid estimates of the cost of power produced by fusion. Many argue that the massive drops in wind and solar power prices combined with new storage technologies, smart networks and the huge potential of green hydrogen will make fusion economically uncompetitive before it is even born.