In my last article, I described a potentially revolutionary approach to generating fusion energy, by impacting super-high-velocity projectiles onto specially designed targets. First Light Fusion, the company pursuing this “projectile fusion” method, has a pulsed power device called “Machine 3” capable of accelerating projectiles up to velocities of 20 kilometers per second, or 75,000 kilometers […]

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In my discussion (published starting here) with Paul Methven, head of Britain’s STEP program to build a first electricity-producing fusion power plant, Methven stressed that the program is open to more than one technological option. While STEP is betting mainly on the spherical tokamak, it is supporting the formation of a “fusion cluster” that will […]

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Eric Lerner, Big Bang Theory, Dark energy, Dark matter, filaments, Plasma cosmology, gravity, magnetism, plasmoids, LPPFusion, dense plasma focus, focus fusion,

The post Fusion from filaments on Earth and in the cosmos appeared first on Asia Times.

(As anticipated by the authors of this unique Asia Times article, US presidential envoy John Kerry on Tuesday, December 5, delivered hard-hitting remarks in Dubai as he introduced the new US policy on fusion energy. Watch Kerry’s speech here. Read a Reuters news article here. The background on the how and why of the shift […]

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This is the eighth and final installment in Asia Times Science Editor Jonathan Tennenbaum’s series “Fusion Diary.” Read part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, Part 5, Part 6 and Part 7. In colloquial language, one might say, “When it comes to tokamaks, its all about magnets.” That is not literally true, but certainly the design and performance of a […]

The post Fusion Diary: the magnet wizards appeared first on Asia Times.

This is the seventh installment in Asia Times Science Editor Jonathan Tennenbaum’s series “Fusion Diary.” Read part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, Part 5 and Part 6. During my August visit to nuclear fusion facilities in the UK, I spent an afternoon at Tokamak Energy Ltd, one of the world’s leading private fusion companies. Tokamak Energy’s basic strategy […]

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This is the sixth installment in Asia Times Science Editor Jonathan Tennenbaum’s series “Fusion Diary.” Read a series introduction, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4. and Part 5. Part 6 is the conclusion of an interview with Paul Methven, director of Great Britain’s Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) program. In Parts 4 and 5 Methven describes the challenges […]

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Southeastern China’s Jiangxi province is going to build a fusion-fission power plant for more than 20 billion yuan (US$2.7 billion), with a target of continuously generating 100 megawatts (MW) of electricity. Jiangxi Electronic Group, a state-owned enterprise, said in a statement on Tuesday that Lianovation Superconductor and CNNC Fusion (Chengdu) Design and Research Institute signed […]

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This is the fifth installment in Asia Times Science Editor Jonathan Tennenbaum’s series “Fusion Diary.” Read a series introduction, part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4. Part 5 is a continuation of an August 22, 2023, interview with Paul Methven, director of Great Britain’s Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) program. Jonathan Tennenbaum: […]

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This is the fourth installment in Asia Times Science Editor Jonathan Tennenbaum’s series “Fusion Diary.” For an introduction to the series, readers are encouraged to start with “US abandoning its leadership in fusion energy,” by Matthew Moynihan and Alfred B Bortz. Then read part 1 of the series here, part 2 here and part 3 here. On […]

The post Fusion Diary: An ‘Apollo Program’ for fusion appeared first on Asia Times.

This is the third installment in Asia Times’ Science Editor Jonathan Tennenbaum’s series “Fusion Diary.” For an introduction to the series, readers are encouraged to start with “US abandoning its leadership in fusion energy,” by Matthew Moynihan and Alfred B Bortz. Then read part 1 of the series here and part 2 here. In its national […]

The post Fusion Diary: the spherical tokamak story appeared first on Asia Times.

This is the second installment in Asia Times Science Editor Jonathan Tennenbaum’s series “Fusion Diary.” For an introduction to the series, readers are encouraged to start with “US abandoning its leadership in fusion energy,” by Matthew Moynihan and Alfred B Bortz. Then read part 1 of the series here. – eds I am standing in […]

The post Visiting the world’s largest fusion reactor appeared first on Asia Times.

This is the first installment in Asia Times’ Science Editor Jonathan Tennenbaum’s series “Fusion Diary.” For an introduction to the series, readers are encouraged to start with a piece published earlier this month, “US abandoning its leadership in fusion energy,” by Matthew Moynihan and Alfred B Bortz. – eds  Fusion is maturing rapidly. In August […]

The post Fusion Diary: Inside Britain’s race to fusion appeared first on Asia Times.

It was December 8, 2022, when the email from her colleagues arrived. Tammy Ma, a leading plasma physicist at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) was in the San Francisco Airport waiting for a flight to the east coast. It took only a glance at the data from her […]

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China’s government is urging the nation’s fusion energy physicists to redouble and accelerate their efforts in view of recent key breakthroughs in the field made by US and Japanese scientists. Chinese state media reported that Science and Technology Minister Wang Zhigang inspected the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) experimental fusion reactor and met with local […]

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TOKYO – Kyoto Fusioneering is raising big new money from domestic venture capital funds, banks and energy, engineering and trading companies, the latest indication that nuclear fusion energy ventures are becoming increasingly investible in Japan. On May 17, Kyoto Fusioneering announced its 10.5 billion yen (US$75 million) Series C funding round had been oversubscribed, marking […]

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The California-based company TAE Technologies recently announced the results of a series of fusion experiments conducted in collaboration with Japan’s National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS). The findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications. In these experiments, alpha particles have been observed that are attributed to proton-boron fusion reactions. The outcome has been […]

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In part 1 and part 2 of this series of articles on how cosmic evolution developed with neither expansion nor a Big Bang, we saw how electromagnetic forces formed huge filaments of current and plasma. Then gravitation and magnetism combined to collapse these filaments into a hierarchy of stars, galaxies, clusters and superclusters of galaxies. […]

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Thirteen years after completion of the US$3.5 billion National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), the goal embodied in the giant laser’s name has finally been achieved. For the first time in the nearly 70-year history of controlled fusion research, a fusion reaction has yielded more energy than it took to spark […]

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Researchers in the US have finally fulfilled an objective that was set decades ago: the achievement of “ignition” – getting more energy out than you put in – using nuclear fusion. The scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF), where the experiment took place, are no doubt both excited and relieved […]

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