"Zap Energy took the wraps off its latest fusion device Tuesday at a research meeting in Long Beach, California, the latest in a string of devices the company has built in its quest to bring fusion power to market. The startup is in a race with several other startups that are all attempting to build fusion power plants capable of putting electricity on the grid in the early 2030s."
"The Fuze-3 device was able to compress a soup of charged particles - also known as plasma - to more than 232,000 psi (1.6 gigapascals) and heat it to more than 21 million degrees F (11.7 million degrees C). The pressure data marks a record for the type of fusion Zap is pursuing, known as a sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch. Zap's reactor uses electrodes to send electricity through a plasma, which causes the plasma to generate a magnetic field."
"Achieving high-pressure plasmas is vital to any future fusion power plant. In order to generate more power than they consume, fusion reactions must deliver what's known as the triple product, a figure that describes the temperature, pressure, and duration of a plasma inside a fusion reactor. In other words, get a plasma hot enough and dense enough for long enough, and you'll be able to generate power."
Zap Energy unveiled its Fuze-3 fusion device and has been firing plasma pulses at its Seattle headquarters to inform future demonstration plant designs. The Fuze-3 compressed plasma to over 232,000 psi (1.6 GPa) and heated it above 21 million °F (11.7 million °C), marking a pressure record for the sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch approach. The reactor drives current through plasma to create a magnetic field that heats and compresses the plasma toward fusion. High plasma pressure, temperature, and confinement time (the triple product) are required for net power. Zap calculates it must raise pressure by at least tenfold to reach scientific breakeven.
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