2018 Physics/Theoretical Colloquium

Thursday, November 29, 2018

3:45 – 4:45 p.m.

Rosen Auditorium (TA-53, Bldg. 1)

Refreshments at 3:15pm

 

Speaker:   Prof. Martin Greenwald

Plasma Science Fusion Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

 

“SPARC and the High-Field, Privately-Funded, Path to Fusion Energy”

 

Abstract:  

While fusion has enormous potential as a source of safe carbon-free power, the current road map seems unlikely to deliver this new energy source in a timely manner. However, the basis for a breakthrough is here. A new technology – high-temperature superconductors – has emerged from the laboratory into industrial maturity. Magnets built with this conductor can achieve significantly higher fields and enable a new class of fusion power plants that would be smaller and cheaper than those envisioned today. With the SPARC project, MIT has embarked on a project to test this premise. The SPARC magnetic confinement experiment will be a deuterium-tritium burning, mid-sized tokamak – of a size and configuration similar to many machines already in operation. Using well-known physics to project performance, we can expect SPARC to produce 50-100 MW of fusion power, comfortably more than the 30 MW required to sustain it. If successful, it would be the world’s first demonstration of net energy from a controlled fusion plasma. SPARC is funded by private industry, building on the foundations of decades of fruitful government funded research while harnessing the resources, agility, and risk tolerance of the start-up culture.