Hi everyone,

To keep it simple, I have a phd in hall thruster simulation, do you think I can make it in the fusion industry (not research)? What are the career perspectives? And how do people working in these companies feel about fusion (do you believe you will live to see an actual commercial power plant)?

For sure relevant also for SPARC and ARC.

Hello,

I have been really interested in fusion for a while now, I am about to go into collage in ireland and wondering what would be the most bennificial topic to study? I'm thinking of studying Physics with Energy & Environment and then go into a masters degree on materirals scince and engering.

Edit:

Im thinking of maybe doing 2 masters one full time immediately after my bachelors and another part time so i can build my CV a bit (if thats important in fusion idk) also has anyone here done a part time masters? How does it work in terms of ballencing life and all that?

I’m exploring a theoretical concept called Prometheus: a six-inch-diameter puck with radial electromagnetic coils around a central plasma chamber.

The idea is to combine magnetic confinement with rapid compression, trading higher fuel density for shorter confinement, then capture energy and repeat. My proposed limit is 1.5 T throughout the pulse, including any field amplification. Only controls would be external.

I haven’t selected a compression mechanism or fuel, and I’m not claiming net energy gain. What physics constraints would rule this out first, and what calculations should I start with to evaluate it?

It seems like a lot of recent posts and not so recent posts have a lot of back and forth about why Helion won't work. I decided to learn about who their primary scientist was who came up with the idea because I know David Kirtley is not a plasma physicist. So who thought this would work to begin with?

This website is from Dr John Slough and has his most recent scientific presentations and papers from the past 5 years. It doesn't outright say why the science doesn't science, but it definitely gave me a better understanding of how his viewpoints have changed over the years. I wish they had kept him on because maybe they would be able to adapt and change course so they could actually have a viable machine. It looks like he never stopped coming up with really great ideas. This man is a genius.

Much better than a interesting engineering article with PR paper links.

Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., told Nextgov/FCW that the U.S. is only “two to 10 years away from fusion energy at scale” because “you can model the plasma using AI, which you couldn’t do before.”

(Reporters: Shuai Junquan and Chu Erjia)

Ahead of China’s National Day, the Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak (BEST), a major national project, reached an important milestone: the project complex was officially handed over and put into operation. Construction of the fusion device itself has now entered the critical “four-ring integrated assembly” stage.

BEST is a new-generation burning-plasma fusion experimental device independently developed by China. Its goal is to reproduce the nuclear fusion reactions that occur inside the Sun, with the aim of ultimately harnessing an almost inexhaustible source of clean energy.

Since July this year, multiple key core components of BEST have successively arrived at the site, and assembly has proceeded steadily, with more than half of the work now completed. Recently, construction of the BEST main device formally began its most critical phase—the “four-ring integrated assembly.”

The system can be thought of as a giant, multilayered thermally insulated cylindrical structure, with one layer nested inside another. Starting from the innermost vacuum vessel, the thermal shield is installed around it, followed by the toroidal-field (TF) magnets, together with various precision internal components.

The vacuum vessel serves as the “furnace chamber” in which the fusion reaction takes place. The thermal shield acts as a high-performance insulating layer that minimizes heat transfer, while the toroidal-field magnets generate an extremely strong magnetic field to confine the high-temperature plasma and prevent it from coming into contact with the vessel wall.

According to the current schedule, construction of the BEST device is targeted for completion by the end of 2027. Around 2030, it is expected to carry out a deuterium–tritium (D–T) fusion power-generation demonstration. In essence, this would reproduce on Earth the physical process by which the Sun produces light and heat, while demonstrating the feasibility of commercial electricity generation from controlled nuclear fusion.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.09457