ARC and the path to high field fusion

Brandon Sorbom

Commonwealth Fusion Systems

Friday, October 16, 2020

3:00pm

Remote

PSFC Seminars

Abstract: When its conceptual design was published in 2015 and refined in 2018, the ARC Reactor presented a smaller, higher-field alternative to traditional tokamak power plant designs based on low-temperature superconductors (LTS). The use of high-temperature superconductors (HTS) in the ARC magnet systems allowed the design to achieve similar fusion power to ITER in a JET-sized device. While these original papers presented one possible instantiation of ARC, they emphasized that this "version" was not meant to be the single ARC point design but represented one of many possible compact, high-field tokamak configurations that were possible when using HTS. Since the publication of the original papers, there has been a large amount of development into both the physics and technology underlying compact, high-field tokamaks, as evidenced in numerous recent SPARC publications and hardware development being carried out by MIT and CFS. This work in both physics and technology has provided a clearer picture of the feasibility of different development pathways to an ARC-like power plant and will be presented in this talk.

Bio: Brandon Sorbom, Chief Science Officer, Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS)
MIT, Ph.D., Nuclear Science and Engineering (2017)
Loyola Marymount University, B.S., Electrical Engineering, Engineering Physics (2010)
MIT PSFC researcher since 2010

Brandon's expertise is in fusion energy, compact power plant design and high temperature superconductors. During his doctoral work at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Brandon was the leader of the ARC Reactor design study, a conceptual design for a small, modular fusion pilot plant that formed the basis for a comprehensive high-field pathway to commercial fusion energy. As CSO of CFS, Brandon leads the work in evaluating high temperature superconductor performance and prospects for scale-up, as well as leading the power plant design scoping efforts.

MIT NW17-218 is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: PSFC Seminar: B. Sorbom
Time: Oct 9, 2020 12:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://mit-psfc.zoom.us/j/6174522043?pwd=NHN3ZHFURUJLM0VkQnprOVkyaVhNUT09

Meeting ID: 617 452 2043
Passcode: Fusion