Commonwealth Fusion Systems

When the plasma inside a fusion system starts to misbehave, it needs to be quickly cooled to prevent damage to the device. ??? Researchers from PPPL, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, General Atomics and Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) have identified the optimal gas injection setup for the SPARC fusion system, using six strategically placed valves to cool the plasma rapidly and protect the vessel from damage. SPARC is a collaborative effort between the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at MIT and the CFS, a private fusion company. The high-fidelity simulations were made possible via the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s INFUSE program, which accelerates fusion research by promoting private-public partnerships. ?? https://bit.ly/41Ucezo

We're looking forward to hearing our CEO, Bob Mumgaard speak at the first ever #FusionFest hosted by The Economist on April 8, where he'll discuss the global race to fusion that's currently underway. Fusion is hard, and it'll benefit substantially from resources and collaboration. There’s a window of opportunity right now for the Department of Energy to accelerate fusion efforts in the US, but the country is in danger of falling behind. The stakes are high. Countries that arrive early to the fusion future will have a sustained advantage — a new engine to boost economic growth and quality of life. Register for Fusion Fest to hear more: https://lnkd.in/dSeHmwvP

"Everything is about to change in Tokamak Hall." This month, we brought a key component of our prototype fusion machine, SPARC, into its final home inside the SPARC facility at our campus in Devens, Massachusetts. It's the cryostat base — the foundation of SPARC and a major milestone in its buildout. Along with its job to support SPARC’s mass, the 75-ton base acts as a conduit for fundamental systems like cryogenics and fuel lines that connect to the machine. It's also a vital boundary protecting the magnets inside SPARC from the warmer outside environment so they function at full strength. The cryostat helps keep SPARC’s magnets cold the same way a Thermos flask keeps your drink at the right temperature: It’s a container with no air between its walls. That air could carry heat from the outside to the inside. SPARC’s cryostat is designed to be so well sealed that only a cubic centimeter of gas could leak over 30 years. Learn more on our blog: https://lnkd.in/eVSWjXwA #PowerMoves #SPARC #FusionEnergy

The steel cases for our toroidal field (TF) magnets are sizable but also must be manufactured with attention to fine detail. These cases house magnets that will let our prototype fusion machine, SPARC, confine a super-energetic cloud of particles called a plasma so that fusion can occur. Here's a firsthand look at our collaborators at SIMIC hard at work making the cases.

It takes the strongest magnets to bring the power of the stars to Earth — and our CFS team is hard at work building those magnets at our factory in Devens, Massachusetts. Stronger magnets means smaller fusion machines and more affordable electricity. That's the core idea behind our SPARC tokamak that's designed to demonstrate net fusion energy and pave the way for a full-on fusion power plant. Our CEO Bob Mumgaard, Chief Science Officer Brandon Sorbom, and VP of Advanced Manufacturing Darby Dunn take you behind the scenes at CFS to see how our magnet technology is changing the world as we know it with a new source of clean power that can meet rising energy demand. Watch the full-length Bloomberg Originals feature here to learn how magnets — not just ours — are so important to the world: https://lnkd.in/gDYyWXyF #FusionEnergy #CleanEnergy #Magnets #Science

"China and the US are in a race to create the first grid-scale nuclear fusion energy. After decades of US leadership, China is catching up by spending twice as much and building projects at record speed." So concludes Katie Tarasov of CNBC on how the US could lose the race with China in developing fusion energy at scale. Fusion energy promises clean power, with no greenhouse gases or long-lived radioactive waste, that can meet the growing power demands of AI. China’s investment could lead it to dominate fusion the way it dominates solar energy today. For a look at what’s at stake and how the US government can answer China’s progress, read the full article and catch the in-depth video, including comments from Bob Mumgaard, Andrew Holland, Dennis Whyte, and other fusion experts. #FusionEnergy #China Full article: https://lnkd.in/dZ-5w7gP

"This is not a paper exercise for us," Mumgaard said. "We're putting this machine together, we're buying the parts, we're machining the parts, and it's all coming together at the exact time the world really needs something like this." – Bob Mumgaard, CEO at Commonwealth Fusion Systems, speaking with Ben Tracy and CBS Sunday Mornings about the real progress we're making on fusion. The fusion milestone the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory achieved in 2022 by creating energy from fusion that surpassed the laser energy that triggered the reaction, proved that fusion on Earth is possible. At CFS, we're hard at work on our own equivalent demonstration using superconducting magnets. That’s the purpose of the prototype fusion machine, SPARC, that we’re building today at our headquarters in Devens, Massachusetts. It’s designed to let us take our next big step toward sustainable, commercial fusion energy that we expect will transform the world.

Jennifer Ganten, Chief Global Affairs Officer at Commonwealth Fusion Systems, joined Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chairman David Wright and others this week to talk about the role regulation plays in helping to bring fusion power to the grid. With our SPARC machine under construction now at CFS, we’re steadily overcoming the technical challenges around fusion. But for fusion to succeed, we also need an effective, appropriate regulatory framework, Ganten said at the commission’s Regulatory Information Conference (RIC). With regulatory certainty, we see investments grow across the entire fusion ecosystem, from power plant developers to suppliers. Ganten also thanked NRC — from the commissioners through to the staff members — for their constructive engagement in the fusion regulatory conversation.

Fusion energy is bigger than any single company. Attendees of the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston this week got a taste of the range of leaders needed to make fusion energy real as Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin and Dominion Energy Chief Executive Bob Blue shared the stage with our own CEO, Bob Mumgaard. We’re working together to coordinate the technology, business, and government efforts needed to bring the energy source of the sun to our planet. “People looking at the future and what innovation fits in — they come from all different parts of the ecosystem,” Mumgaard said at the conference. “Whether that’s venture capitalists, or an oil and gas executive, or a place like MIT — it’s going to take a lot of breadth to make these technologies go from an idea and the science to a demonstration. At Commonwealth Fusion Systems, we’ve recognized that from the beginning. That’s why ‘systems’ is in the name. It’s not just the technical system, it’s the bigger system.” We’re building our first fusion machine, a tokamak called SPARC, to demonstrate net fusion energy in 2027 at CFS headquarters in Devens, Massachusetts. And in December, we announced our plan to send fusion power to the grid starting in the early 2030s with our first ARC power plant in Chesterfield County, Virginia. Virginia, home of “data center alley” along with industrial and population growth, needs that power. “We’ve got one of the fastest growing demands for electricity of any utility in the country: It’s 6% annual growth rate for the next decade. Bear in mind our company has connected 415 data centers to date with a load of about 9 gigawatts. We have under contract another 5 [gigawatts],” said Dominion Energy’s Blue. “Having this kind of source of electricity will be very valuable.” And there’s urgency to the work. CFS accounts for about 30% of all the employees and private funding for fusion energy, but “we’re eclipsed by the Chinese program, which is several times bigger,” Mumgaard said. Youngkin agrees. “There’s a race to lead the world in power generation. China is building coal plants, China is building gas plants, China is building small modular reactors, China is building AP1000 [nuclear power plants], and China is building fusion plants. Therefore, we’ve got to get moving,” Youngkin said. “We’ve got to drive hard to accelerate fusion.” #PowerMoves #FusionEnergy #Virginia

“Holy mackerel. This is a game-changer.” That was the reaction fusion pioneer Bob Conn said he had when he heard about two of the innovations that led to the founding of Commonwealth Fusion Systems and our approach to generating fusion energy. The first innovation: high-temperature superconductors (HTS), materials that can make electromagnets more powerful and our fusion machines, called tokamaks, more economical. Second was electrical connection joints that mean magnets can be taken apart then reassembled. That makes maintenance “dramatically” easier, Conn said in a talk at the University of California–San Diego, where he’s a dean emeritus. Conn is in a good position to appreciate those developments. Over decades in fusion research, Conn was instrumental in bringing several tokamak to life, and he helped set up several labs’ fusion programs. He praised the National Ignition Facility researchers who showed net fusion energy in 2022 using a laser-based system at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Tokamaks are headed the same direction and are easier to turn into a power plant, he argues: “When I look at the rest of the system, the tokamak has a leg up.” Check the video for Conn’s full talk: https://lnkd.in/efmkfpTW