NEWS: Magnetic fusion energy

Photo of Wukitch and Wright

March 12, 2021

Summarizing a new approach for fusion heating

Principal research scientists at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Dr. John Wright and Dr. Stephen Wukitch, have collaborated with international partners on a review paper summarizing research on a three-ion approach to plasma heating for magnetic fusion devices, a scenario for which they shared the American Physical Society (APS) Landau-Spitzer Award in 2018.

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

SPARC, MIT

September 29, 2020

Validating the physics behind SPARC

This series of papers provides a high level of confidence in the plasma physics and the performance predictions for SPARC. No unexpected impediments or surprises have shown up, and the remaining challenges appear to be manageable. This sets a solid basis for the device’s operation once constructed, according to Martin Greenwald, Deputy Director of MIT PSFC.

MIT News

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

February 13, 2020

IAP fusor workshop inaugurates Nuclear Maker Space

Research engineer Willy Burke had never heard of a “fusor.” Now he has guided the successful creation of 14 fusors, in the process inaugurating a new maker space sponsored by the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, the PSFC, and MIT’s office of Environmental Health and Safety.

PSFC

January 27, 2020

Nathan Howard wins Nuclear Fusion Award

Nathan Howard, research scientist at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, has won the 2019 Nuclear Fusion Award for a paper that explains heat losses due to turbulence in the core of magnetically confined fusion plasmas.

PSFC

MITEI, MIT

December 20, 2019

"Energy at scale”, engagement as levers of decarbonization

MITEI's 2019 Annual Research Conference emphasized the dire urgency of the climate crisis; the importance of an intersectoral and collaborative approach to decarbonization; and the role of economics and policy in combatting global temperature rise.

MITEI

November 22, 2019

Heating by Cooling

As a graduate student Pablo Rodriguez-Fernandez (PhD’19) became intrigued by a fusion research mystery that had remained unsolved for 20 years. His novel observations and subsequent modeling helped provide the answer, earning him the 2019 Del Favero Thesis Prize.

PSFC

Dennis Whyte, MIT

November 12, 2019

The fusion energy dream

American investment would help ensure that the United States becomes the home of a world-changing — and potentially world-saving — technology.

Washington Post

Martin Greenwald, MIT

September 19, 2019

For Green Energy, MIT Aims To Build 'A Star On Earth'

The future of fusion energy is right around the corner. You'll find it off Massachusetts Avenue, on Albany Street in Cambridge. It's on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in an old, low-rise, brown brick building once owned by Nabisco.

WBUR

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