Nuclear Fusion News & Discussions

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'World's largest' fusion fuel facility to be built

6 hours ago

A facility designed to store and recover a fuel used for nuclear fusion is set to be built.

United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and Italian energy company Eni have partnered to construct the facility - thought to be the world's largest - at the Culham science campus in Oxfordshire.

Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen which is heated and forced together to make a heavier particle during nuclear fusion.

The new tritium fuel cycle facility, which will recover and re-use the particles, is due to be completed in 2028.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy4vrd4l0mgo



Credit: UKAEA

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Fusion Energy: ITER Completes World’s Largest and Most Powerful Pulsed Magnet System with Major Components Built by USA, Russia, Europe, China
April 30, 2025

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) In a landmark achievement for fusion energy, ITER has completed all components for the world’s largest, most powerful pulsed superconducting electromagnet system.

ITER is an international collaboration of more than 30 countries to demonstrate the viability of fusion—the power of the sun and stars—as an abundant, safe, carbon-free energy source for the planet.

The final component was the sixth module of the Central Solenoid, built and tested in the United States. When it is assembled at the ITER site in Southern France, the Central Solenoid will be the system’s most powerful magnet, strong enough to lift an aircraft carrier.

The Central Solenoid will work in tandem with six ring-shaped Poloidal Field (PF) magnets, built and delivered by Russia, Europe, and China.

The fully assembled pulsed magnet system will weigh nearly 3,000 tons. It will function as the electromagnetic heart of ITER’s donut-shaped reactor, called a Tokamak

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1081952

Here is the ITER web site: https://www.iter.org/

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Breakthrough shrinks fusion power plant and expands practicality
By David Szondy
May 10, 2025

Commercial fusion power plants may be cheaper and easier to build thanks to a breakthrough by TAE Technologies that allows reactors to generate their own containment fields without the need for massive magnetic coils and other systems.

Practical fusion power has been touted as only 25 years in the future ever since 1945, but there are some bright spots on the horizon that suggest that it could come to pass as soon as the next decade.

Part of the problem has been that the tokamak reactor, the front-runner design for a fusion power plant, has become a bit like that home extension that got out of hand and sucked up a lot more time and money than originally budgeted for until you wish you'd never started it in the first place.

https://newatlas.com/energy/breakthroug ... cticality/

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The world’s only fusion experiment that actually gives back more energy than it takes in is now breaking its own records. According to TechCrunch, the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory recently pushed its fusion yield—first to 5.2 megajoules, and then to 8.6 megajoules—more than doubling the energy released in its historic shot in 2022.

That original breakthrough was the first time scientists had ever achieved “ignition”—a fusion reaction that generated more energy (3.15 megajoules) than the lasers put into the fuel (2.05 megajoules).

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ITER taking shape.

https://www.iter.org/node/20687/two-sec ... e-side-pit

[...] "With the successful insertion of sector module #6 on 18 June, there are now two vacuum vessel sector modules positioned side by side."

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Google just pre-ordered 200 megawatts of fusion energy for the 2030s
By Abhimanyu Ghoshal
July 01, 2025
https://newatlas.com/energy/google-200m ... cfs-2030s/

Massachusetts-based energy startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) has struck a deal to deliver 200 MW of electricity to Google from its upcoming ARC power plant in Chesterfield County, Virginia.

This facility is expected to come online sometime in the early 2030s, so it'll be a while before Google can power its operations with CFS' carbon-free energy. The tech giant has been investing in CFS since 2021 in a bid to support the development of a new – and so far, seemingly impossible – source of clean energy.

The announcement reminds me of Helion Energy's deal to power Microsoft's data centers from its upcoming 50-MW fusion plant by 2028. That startup has raised over US$1 billion to crack a way to generate more power than the inputs required to facilitate a fusion reaction.

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Google Puts Its Muscle Behind Clean Fusion Power
The internet giant boosts its stake in Commonwealth Fusion Systems.
By Josh Gulick July 2, 2025

Google increased its commitment to fusion power this week by upping its stake in Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS). The internet giant announced that it will buy 200 megawatts (MW) of fusion power from the company. However, CFS is still in the process of constructing its massive ARC fusion power plant in Virginia, according to NBC News. CFS plans to have the first ARC ready in the early 2030s, which means Google is taking the long view with its purchase.

Although Google won’t have access to the power it’s buying for more than five years, making the purchase now is in Google’s interest. The move both helps CFS on its path to a functioning fusion power generator and gets Google’s foot in the door once CFS meets with success.

https://www.extremetech.com/energy/goog ... sion-power

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https://x.com/i/grok/share/8qgs4rCmReuUouVKdAYAHwlC1

Here’s a concise roundup of the latest developments in nuclear fusion, based on recent advancements and reports up to August 12, 2025:

- **Record-Breaking Plasma Confinement**: In February 2025, the French tokamak WEST sustained a plasma at 50 million degrees Celsius for 22 minutes (1,337 seconds), surpassing China’s EAST reactor’s previous record of 1,006 seconds set in January 2025. This milestone, achieved with tungsten walls, marks progress in maintaining stable, high-temperature plasmas critical for fusion energy.[](https://www.sciencealert.com/fusion-bre ... tor-record)[](https://www.sciencealert.com/new-record ... ear-fusion)

- **China’s EAST Breakthrough**: China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), dubbed the "artificial sun," maintained a plasma for 1,066 seconds on January 20, 2025, doubling its prior record. Upgrades to its heating system and use of a new super steel alloy (CHSN01) are advancing its capabilities, supporting global projects like ITER.[](https://www.livescience.com/planet-eart ... 00-seconds)[](https://interestingengineering.com/inno ... sion-plant)

- **Construction of Fusion Power Plants**: Helion Energy began construction on the world’s first commercial fusion power plant, Orion, in Malaga, Washington, aiming to deliver electricity to Microsoft by 2028. Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) is also building its ARC fusion plant in Virginia, targeting grid power in the early 2030s.[](https://www.geekwire.com/2025/helion-br ... certainty/)[](https://www.eenews.net/articles/startup ... es-fusion/)[](https://www.ans.org/news/topic-fusion/)

- **Global Investment and Collaboration**: The fusion industry raised $2.64 billion in funding from July 2024 to July 2025, with cumulative investments reaching $9.766 billion across 53 companies. The U.S. Department of Energy allocated $107 million to six Fusion Innovative Research Engine (FIRE) collaboratives in January 2025 to accelerate commercialization.[](https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/fusion)[](https://www.ans.org/news/topic-fusion/)[](https://usfusionenergy.org/news)

- **Material and Technology Advances**: MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center established the Schmidt Laboratory to develop radiation-resistant ceramics for fusion reactors. China’s new super steel and Germany’s Wendelstein 7-X stellarator, which set a record for fusion performance, highlight progress in materials and reactor design.[](https://news.mit.edu/topic/fusion)[](https://www.livescience.com/planet-eart ... ean-energy)[](https://interestingengineering.com/inno ... sion-plant)

- **Big Tech Involvement**: Google signed a 200 MW power purchase agreement with CFS, and Microsoft is partnering with Helion, reflecting growing interest from tech giants in fusion to power AI data centers.[](https://www.ans.org/news/topic-fusion/)[](https://www.politico.com/newsletters/po ... h-00486588)

These developments indicate significant strides toward commercial fusion, though challenges like achieving net energy gain and cost-effective scaling remain. Fusion is still likely decades from widespread use, but these milestones suggest a promising trajectory. For more details, check sources like www.sciencealert.com or www.livescience.com.[](https://www.sciencealert.com/fusion-breakthrough-6-minutes-of-plasma-sets-new-reactor-record)[](https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/nuclear-energy/chinas-artificial-sun-shatters-nuclear-fusion-record-by-generating-steady-loop-of-plasma-for-1-000-seconds)

If you want me to dig deeper into any specific project or aspect, let me know!

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https://chatgpt.com/s/t_689be75d3b80819 ... 50189f49f2

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Fusion Reactors Are Melting Diamonds, and It Could Hold Back Fusion Power
Reactors' extreme temperatures and pressures introduce defects that ultimately limit their efficiency.
By Graham Templeton August 27, 2025

Science often requires access to some of the most exotic and expensive materials, whether it's NASA's love of gold foil, chemistry's wide use of platinum crucibles, or the diamond capsules used to hold hydrogen fuel for some fusion reactors. The use of these materials is usually justified by the fact that they're the only ones with the properties required to advance high-level science.

But what about when even those materials are found wanting?

That's what seems to be happening now, according to a new study in the journal Matter. The study purports to have found deformations in diamonds exposed to the pressures found in fusion reactions. They exposed the diamond to pressures exceeding 115 gigapascals and found it had irreversibly changed.

For reference, the highest pressure ever recorded in the deep sea is around 110 megapascals, making these pressures around a thousand times greater, though maintained on only the nanosecond scale.

https://www.extremetech.com/science/fus ... sion-power

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Fusion device fires “super-lightning” pulses 12 times a minute
By David Szondy
October 12, 2025
https://newatlas.com/energy/z-pinch-fus ... ing-bolts/

Living up to its name, University of Washington spin-off company ZAP Energy's Century system is developing fusion power technology by blasting plasma with super-lightning-like pulses 12 times per minute, without relying on superconducting magnets or laser beams.

They say that there's more than one way to skin a cat. The same goes for the pursuit of fusion conditions. While the preferred approaches use powerful magnets or arrays of lasers to confine and heat hydrogen isotopes until they fuse to release energy, there are other ways to achieve the same ends.

One of these is the Z-pinch principle, which was first developed for fusion experiments in the 1950s. In this, a column of plasma is pushed along the vertical or Z axis by a high-powered electrical current. This causes the plasma to self-generate a strong magnetic field at an angle that compresses and heats the plasma.