On that morning of December 5, for the first time ever, the lasers delivered 2.1. megajoules of energy and yielded 3.15 megajoules in return, achieving an historic fusion energy gain well above 1—a result verified by diagnostic tools developed by the MIT PSFC.
PSFC Director Dennis Whyte received a 2022 University of Saskatchewan Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing his significant accomplishments since graduating from USask.
New five-year agreement will support SPARC science, increase graduate students and post-docs, and support interdisciplinary work towards fusion power plants
In a ceremony held on May 5, the team leaders for the Plasma Science and Fusion Center’s Toroidal Field Model Coil (TFMC) received 2022 MIT Infinite Mile Awards.
“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.”
On the CBC radio show "The Current" (located halfway down this page), PSFC Director Dennis Whyte responds to the news of a fusion breakthrough at JET in the UK.
PSFC Director Dennis Whyte and NSE Professor Jeff Freidberg have received a Seed Fund grant from MITEI to study “Advanced MHD topping cycles: For fission, fusion, solar power plants."
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Amanda Hubbard, principal research scientist at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC), has been awarded a 2020 Secretary of Energy’s Appreciation Award.
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.
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.
In March, when concerns about the coronavirus forced her to leave MIT, undergraduate Sreya Vangara found herself 450 miles from campus, and needing to reorient her approach to her fusion project for both the spring and summer sessions.
Recently the PSFC's Matt Fulton found himself playing guitar and singing for a new audience, his work colleagues, welcoming them to an end-of-the-week Zoom concert of “pub tunes."