As countries around the world race to rid themselves of fossil fuels, nuclear fusion presents the ultimate opportunity in its promise of an effectively limitless supply of clean energy. While it's largely been theoretical up to this point, new studies show that scientists are closing in on a real, serviceable version of the technology. This week, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology revealed seven studies that suggest a compact nuclear fusion reactor they have been working on should work.
The reactor, which has been named Sparc, has been in development for more than two and a half years as part of a partnership between MIT and a startup company called Commonwealth Fusion Systems. The project was reviewed by 47 researchers from 12 institutions, and their findings were published in a special issue of the Journal of Plasma Physics. The consensus from the experts seems to be that there is a high level of confidence that Sparc will work. While there are still challenges remaining in the development of the reactor, they all fall within the realm of what is expected and the researchers found no unexpected issues while parsing through the concept.
