NEWS: SPARC

A glass torus glows with purple plasma

April 5, 2024

Student-Designed “Altator” Achieves First Plasma

For the first time since 2016, a toroidal device housed at the PSFC has produced plasma, and it’s thanks to the work of ten graduate students. Named Altator in homage to the experimental tokamak that operated at the PSFC from 1994 to 2016, the students’ device is a miniature version that will be used to show visitors how plasma flows and is confined within the donut-shaped architecture of a tokamak’s design. 

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

Ian Hutchinson standing in front of Alcator C-Mod tokamak

November 29, 2022

Ian Hutchinson: Probing Plasma

“When I look up at the moon with my sweetheart, my wife of 48 years, I imagine that streaming from its dark side are electron holes that my students and I predicted and that we then discovered,” says Ian Hutchinson. “It’s quite sentimental to me.”

MIT News

Tuba Balta at PSFC

July 8, 2022

Fusion’s new ambassador

High school student Tuba Balta engages new audiences through her MIT PSFC internship.

PSFC News

Dennis Whyte and Bob Mumgaard in experimental environment

May 12, 2022

Practically changing the world

PSFC Director Dennis Whyte received  a 2022 University of Saskatchewan Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing his significant accomplishments since graduating from USask.

University of Saskatchewan News

Diagram of SPARC tokamak

April 6, 2022

Turning neutrons into fusion fuel

“One of the things that you get good at while at MIT,” says PSFC research scientist Sara Ferry, “is being able to start from nothing on a particular system or skill and knowing how to approach it in a way that’s effective.”

PSFC News

Zoe Fisher in the laboratory

February 25, 2022

Finding her way to fusion

Zoe Fisher's undergraduate research journey leads to a role working on the SPARC tokamak.

PSFC News

Photo of John Rice on courtyard bench

February 22, 2022

John Rice on Plasma Rotation

John Rice's new book "Driven Rotation, Self-Generated Flow, and Momentum Transport" consolidates an understanding of the topic gained from years of experience at MIT.

PSFC News

February 9, 2022

Tuning in to invisible waves on the JET tokamak

In England for the last two years, research scientist Alex Tinguely has been overseeing a special antenna used on the UK’s record-breaking fusion experiment.

PSFC News

20T magnet Demo Event Highlights, MIT

September 24, 2021

VIDEO: Highlights of the MIT-CFS 20T Magnet Demo event

On Sunday, September 5, 2021, a large-bore, high temperature superconducting magnet designed and built by CFS and MIT reached a field of 20 tesla. It paves the way to building SPARC and commercializing fusion energy. These are highlights from the Live-Streamed 20 Tesla HTS Magnet Demo Event

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

Amy Watterson illuminated by the glow of her computer screen

July 7, 2021

Model engineer

Since joining the SPARC project, Mechanical Engineer Amy Watterson has honed her modeling skills to prepare fusion magnets for a crucial test.

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

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

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