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Westinghouse Electric Co. and officials with the ITER project in France signed a contract for $180 million for the assembly of the vacuum vessel for the fusion reactor. This is a key milestone in the construction of the ITER reactor, leading the way toward the use of fusion as a practical future source of reliable carbon-free energy.

Fusion energy is a promising form of power generation that aims to harness the same process that powers the sun and stars. Fusion involves combining two light atomic nuclei to form a heavier nucleus, releasing a large amount of energy in the process. This is the opposite of nuclear fission, which splits heavy atoms apart. […]

Over the last three years, electricity generation from fusion has moved from the realm of science fiction to the brink of serious development. A lot has happened, but challenges remain before fusion arrives on

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced on Dec. 13 “the achievement of fusion ignition.” The milestone is a major scientific breakthrough, decades in the making. Fusion, of course, is the process by

The announcement that scientists at a California laboratory achieved a net energy gain from a fusion reaction sparked plenty of debate about what it means for the power generation industry. The breakthrough at the world’s largest nuclear-fusion site—the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore lab—which occurred on Dec. 5 and was publicly announced […]

Scientists and engineers working at the Joint European Torus (JET) have set a new record for sustained fusion energy. The team on Feb. 9 reported producing 59 megajoules of fusion energy, more than doubling the previous record of 21.7 megajoules set in 1997 at JET. The achievement was touted as “a major step forward on […]

Fusion occurs when two atoms slam together to form a heavier atom, such as when two hydrogen atoms fuse to form one helium atom. A tremendous amount of energy is released in the process. This is the same process that powers the sun. In the sun’s core, where temperatures reach 15,000,000C, hydrogen atoms are in […]

This week marked two major milestones for fusion energy. On June 15, San Diego-based General Atomics (GA) said it was ready to ship the first module of the Central Solenoid—the world’s most powerful magnet—which will become a central component of ITER, the world’s largest experimental fusion facility that is under construction in France. And a […]

Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), a company commercializing fusion energy, recently announced a series of seven papers published and peer reviewed in a special edition of the Journal of Plasma Physics. The papers validate the company’s approach to commercial fusion energy. CFS said the papers, written in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) Plasma […]

Howden has been awarded a contract with American based UT-Battelle (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) to supply the DYS Blowout Compressor and the Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) which will be an important part of the Tokamak Cooling Water System (TCWS). Tomkamak is a magnetic fusion device that has been designed to demonstrate the feasibility of fusion […]