TAE says net power from fusion in two years, commercialization in five

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2019/01/14/private-firm-will-bring-fusion-reactor-to-market-within-five-years-ceo-says/#5a0824fa1d4a

by DennisP • 8 years ago

4 6 8 years ago

forbes.com

DennisP3• 8 years ago

A couple years ago I was in a meeting that had someone from Tri Alpha. At that point they'd proven plasma stability, and said they had one more hurdle, which was to see if the plasma stayed stable as they ramped up the temperature. Their model said it would but they hadn't tested it, and were only at 10M degrees so far. They were building a new reactor that would would work at 100M degrees.

He said if that worked out, they had no more unknowns, all they had to do after that is increase the temperature more and that was easy, just add more heating. There'd be no more barriers to commercialization.

I guess it worked out.

Their first net-power reactor will be D-T fusion. With the boron fusion they're ultimately shooting for, there's an insignificant amount of neutron radiation, and they won't need a turbine to extract energy, which will be mostly in the form of fast-moving charged particles. That would make it a very cheap and practical reactor.

bediger4000• 8 years ago

Isn't it traditional for fusion energy to be 10 years out?

Why did Forbes break with tradition?

DennisP3• 8 years ago

Used to be 30 years was traditional. Funny how the number goes down with the passage of time.

In any case, the estimates come from the company CEO.

gandalfian2• 7 years ago

Well in only a week they have already corrected the artical to add a year or two so we are catching up fast...

gandalfian2• 8 years ago

I really hope it turns out to be true and not hyperbole inspired by more prosaic motives. It would be something if the world's energy problems were solved not by the billions invested by the establishment but instead by the investment of a soap opera star!

Mind you based on their claimed timetable shouldn't Lockheed be producing a working prototype about now?

DennisP3• 8 years ago

Yes, but when Lockheed made that claim they were just getting started with fusion, and their experiment used about as much energy as a light bulb. They revealed very little about their design.

TAE has the largest fusion reactor in the U.S. They've been at this for 20 years, present at fusion conferences, and get papers published in serious journals. They achieved stable plasma several years ago.

The actor was one of their earliest investors, but others have included Paul Allen, Goldman Sachs, and the Rockefellers, totaling $700 million so far.

TAE says net power from fusion in two years, commercialization in five

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