Cars That Think
FEBRUARY 6, 2024
The dream of fusion power inched closer to reality in December 2022, when researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) revealed that a fusion reaction had produced more energy than what was required to kick-start it. It showed there’s nothing fundamentally limiting us from being able to harness fusion in the laboratory.”
Cars That Think
MARCH 29, 2024
Invented by Soviet scientists in the 1960s , gyrotons are used in nuclear fusion research experiments to heat and control plasma. Microwaves meet rocks “But an energy beam doesn’t have those kinds of limits,” says Paul Woskov , senior research engineer at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center.
Cars That Think
JUNE 29, 2023
But here, and in an even more anonymous office park nearby, startup Zap Energy is trialing a prototype reactor that is already producing high-energy neutrons from nuclear fusion—if not yet enough to send power back into the grid. Zap isn’t the only fusion company fishing in aviation’s talent pool.
Green Car Congress
APRIL 8, 2020
The US Department of Energy announced the winners of $32 million in funding for 15 projects as part of the ARPA-E Breakthroughs Enabling THermonuclear-fusion Energy ( BETHE ) program. Commercial fusion technology has long been viewed as an ideal energy source. University of Wisconsin-Madison. Earlier post.)
Cars That Think
DECEMBER 27, 2021
Despite these gains, though, traditional magnetic-confinement fusion is still years away from fulfilling nuclear fusion’s promise of generating abundant and carbon-free electricity. But tokamaks aren’t the only path to fusion power. University of Washington. Seattle-based. They won a series of U.S. Zap Energy.
Cars That Think
JULY 15, 2023
Brandon Sorbom , the scientific director of Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) , leads me toward the center of the building’s cross-shaped footprint, weaving among scaffolding, forklifts, and teams of welders and painters. On the site of a former U.S. Army Reserve base near Boston, an unusual structure is rising from the rolling hills.
Cars That Think
FEBRUARY 27, 2022
And scientists and engineers have continued to study the sun’s fusion process in hopes of one day using nuclear fusion to generate heat or electricity. Consequently, governments, universities, and companies have long looked to fusion to remedy these ills. Among those interested parties is NASA. percent efficiency.
Expert insights. Personalized for you.
128 
Let's personalize your content