A tremendous amount of magnets can unleash a wealth of power

Dr. Greg Burritoruz's eyes glow with excitement as he describes the project he's working on.
"It's every engineer's dream to create a technologically challenging project. We need to
develop new technologies and solutions to difficult problems, but it's important to the world at
the same time." I am working at Tokamak Energy, a British startup that is planning to build it.
Nuclear fusion is a reaction that will strengthen the sun and stars. If that power is available on
Earth, it provides a variety of energy sources without generating carbon dioxide with very small
amounts of fuel. What doesn't love?
The principle is easy enough to understand. When you have a hydrogen atom and apply
enough heat and pressure, it fuses with each other to form helium. In the process, some of the
hydrogen masses are converted into heat and can be used to produce electricity.
The important point here is that hydrogen isotopes do not need to be heated to hundreds of
millions of degrees to undergo fusion here on Earth. It needs to be heated until the hydrogen
isotopes are so energetic that they break down into a vortex of matter called plasma.
The problem was always suppressing that plasma. Stars do it with gravity, but the most
common way on Earth is to use a strong magnetic field to trap the plasma. Most of the
engineering challenges are in the construction of magnets. They must be insanely hot and
powerful enough to hold a violent mass of material. Don't use as much power as the reactor
uses more power than it produces. You can test the breakthrough magnets they talk about to
advance that leap forward. Weighing
10 tons, the D-shaped magnet is large enough for a person to pass through. A very special
electromagnetic tape of about 300 km is wound in a D-shape. The
tape itself is an engineering feat that took decades to develop. A thin layer of superconducting
rare earth barium copper oxide (ReBCO) is deposited on metal tape. When the bundle of tape is
cooled, electricity can be conducted very efficiently. This is enough electricity to power a small
town, as 40,000 amps pass through. The tape that the fusion industry says cooled may feel cold
at 253C below freezing, but in the world of superconducting materials, it's actually a bit
warmer. Dr. Mumgaard, co-founder and CEO of
CFS, says, "The refrigerator we use is the same as the one that fits in the kitchen."
“The same as the previous generation technology requires a refrigerator the size of a home.”
Dr. Wal van Lierop founded the venture capital firm Chrysalix 20 years ago and has been
investing since 2008. Canadian corporate General Fusion tens of millions of dollars.
Historically, the convergence industry has struggled with financing. One of the reasons is that
huge amounts of money have been put into ITER, but it's all changing.
"I see more money being invested and more attention and people are starting to realize that
this is a very big platform technology, and things that may or may not work until 2050 are gone.
"
Van Rieroppu Dr. points out that the potential prize pool is enormous. The global electricity
market is likely to be worth about $3 trillion (2.15 trillion pounds) annually.
"If the [fusion] is successful, it will open up the biggest industrial transformation we have
seen."
Returning to the coal surface (or plasma surface) again, Dr. Brittles confesses that he still has a
lot of engineering work to do. But he has himself.
"I'm working hard to tackle the many challenges that can beat us at any time, but it doesn't
prevent us from sitting in a seat and thinking that we're great in my opinion. "