NEWS: High field magnets

An large, flat, oval-shaped metal container with holes in the sides and a large magnet inside placed around a post.

March 4, 2024

Tests show high-temperature superconducting magnets are ready for fusion

In the predawn hours of Sept. 5, 2021, engineers achieved a major milestone in the labs of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC), when a new type of magnet, made from high-temperature superconducting material, achieved a world-record magnetic field strength of 20 tesla for a large-scale magnet. That’s the intensity needed to build a fusion power plant that is expected to produce a net output of power and potentially usher in an era of virtually limitless power production.

MIT News

Star in a bottle, MIT

September 8, 2021

VIDEO: A Star in a Bottle: The Quest for Commercial Fusion

On Sept. 5, 2021, for the first time, a large high-temperature superconducting electromagnet was ramped up to a field strength of 20 tesla, the most powerful magnetic field of its kind ever created on Earth. That successful demonstration by the PSFC and CFS helps resolve the greatest uncertainty in the quest to build the world’s first fusion power plant that can produce more power than it consumes.

HTS Magnet, MIT

September 8, 2021

VIDEO: Unlocking SPARC: HTS Magnet for Commercial Fusion Applications

An animation of how the high temperature superconducting (HTS) fusion magnet built by MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) and Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS)was tested. Reaching a field of 20 tesla, it is the most powerful superconducting magnet in the world and a key technology in SPARC, a compact, high-field tokamak that will produce net energy from fusion.

July 9, 2021

Magnet Man

After overseeing three years of research and development, Brian LaBombard is ready to test a toroidal field model coil (TFMC), a prototype for those that will be used in the new fusion experiment, SPARC.

PSFC News

Vinny Fry, MIT

June 24, 2021

Wired for Success

MIT engineer, Vinny Fry is preparing to help test SPARC’s Toroidal Field Magnet Coil (TFMC), a scaled prototype for the HTS magnets that will surround the tokamak’s toroidal vacuum chamber to confine the plasma.

PSFC

Diagram of ARCH concept

April 12, 2021

On course to create a fusion power plant

Since taking on course 22.63 (Principles of Fusion Engineering) over a decade ago Prof. Dennis Whyte has moved away from standard lectures, prodding the class to work collectively on  “real world” issues. The course has been instrumental in guiding the real future of fusion at the PSFC.

PSFC News

Portrait of Richard Ibekwe

February 22, 2021

Understanding imperfections in fusion magnets

MIT Energy Fellow Richard Ibekwe is attracted to the challenges of fusion research."There are few problems as hard to solve or that might have as profound a potential positive impact on our planet and the whole of humanity,” he says.
 

PSFC News

February 3, 2021

Keeping an eye on the fusion future

"When I actually got into the depths of fusion, seeing what the PSFC was doing - nothing ever compared,” says graduate student Dan Korsun.

PSFC News

David Fischer, MIT

October 20, 2020

Pushing the envelope with fusion magnets

Postdoctoral associate David Fischer's research focuses on observing ways irradiation damages the thin high-temperature superconductor tapes in the design of ARC, a fusion pilot plant concept.

PSFC

VIPER cable assembly, MIT

October 7, 2020

Superconductor technology for smaller, sooner fusion

A team led by MIT’s PSFC and MIT spinout company Commonwealth Fusion Systems, has developed and extensively tested an HTS cable technology that can be scaled and engineered into the high-performance magnets.

PSFC

Congratulations!

May 28, 2020

Meet our 2020 graduates

Norman Cao, Daniel Korsun, Adam Kuang, and Pyae Phyo graduate on May 29 in MIT's virtual commencement.

PSFC

October 30, 2019

Demonstrating the fundamentals of fusion

October provided the PSFC with consecutive opportunities to educate students and the general public about the science and technology that support plasma fusion research: MIT Energy Night at the MIT Museum, and the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics (APS-DPP) Plasma Science Expo in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

PSFC

April 16, 2019

Talking fusion at the MIT Energy Conference

On April 4 the Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) joined Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) at the MIT Energy Conference Tech Showcase, to demonstrate the magnetic and plasma properties that underlie fusion technologies.

PSFC

January 17, 2019

Tapping the MIT talent pool for the future of fusion

MIT graduate student Caroline Sorensen is using her talent for mechanical engineering to help advance a novel project within the domain of applied science: the commercialization of fusion energy.

School of Engineering

Alex Creely at MIT Energy Night

October 31, 2018

Energy Night provides close-up look at MIT’s fusion future

Liquid nitrogen flowed and plasma glowed at MIT’s Energy Night as PSFC graduate students demonstrated how fusion happens, and how MIT is working with a new superconducting technology to make It happen sooner at less cost.

PSFC

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