Editor’s Note: Clear your calendar tomorrow night…
That’s when Larry Benedict – a 40-year trading veteran – will host his time-sensitive briefing about the chaotic market transition that he sees just around the corner. There’s a market indicator that’s lighting up red… but few others are discussing the implications. That’s why Larry has put together this event to explain what’s coming… and why it’s so important to have a plan in place – especially if you’re typically a “buy and hold” investor.
Larry has been through previous “chaos periods” and helped his clients and readers profit. And now he’s sharing his playbook for not just surviving volatility… but turning it to your advantage.
If you haven’t already, be sure to sign up for tomorrow night’s event. You can register to attend for free by going right here.
It’s one of the greatest challenges of nuclear fusion technology…
To maintain a stable plasma inside a fusion reactor core – at temperatures many multiples that of the core of the sun.
It sounds like an impossible task.
After all, wouldn’t sun-hot plasma just melt everything it came in contact with?
Yes, it would… but only if the plasma actually touched something.
Fusion reactors are designed to keep the plasma from touching anything at all.
Many reactor designs use magnetic confinement to control and stabilize the plasma. This holds it in a specific shape while keeping it from coming in contact with the reactor walls.
This is the key to maintaining a fusion reaction. The plasma is where the magic happens.
Just like in the sun, two nuclei merge to form a heavier nucleus due to the extremely high temperatures and pressure.
And in the process, energy is released.
In the image below are the two most common fuels used in magnetic confinement reactors, deuterium (D) and tritium (T).
They fuse together to create a helium nucleus, a neutron, and a lot of energy.
Source: U.S. Department of Energy
The most common form of magnetic confinement reactor is a tokamak reactor.
We’ve explored this technology and related companies like Commonwealth Fusion Systems in past issues of The Bleeding Edge.
Source: EUROfusion
Longtime readers will recall that tokamak reactors produce a donut-shaped plasma contained by large magnetic coils (shown above in blue).
To stabilize the plasma in a tokamak, it is necessary to run a powerful electric current through the plasma. Without that current, the plasma can destabilize and cause damage to the fusion reactor.
A disadvantage of a tokamak design is that the electric current has to be switched off at regular intervals. Operations can run for several hours, and then they need to stop for a short period of time. This is referred to as pulsed operations.
Practically, this means that a commercialized tokamak reactor needs to be paired with industrial-scale battery backup, and/or a conventional power plant, to ensure that there is no break in electricity provided to the grid.
But not all magnetic confinement fusion reactors are faced with the need for pulsed operations. Or the need for an electric current to stabilize the plasma.
One of my favorite fusion reactor designs is a stellarator.
Most stellarators also produce a donut-shaped plasma, but it is twisted due to the shape of the chamber’s helical coils. I think of it as a twisted toroid. You might think of it as a French cruller donut if you’re hungry.
Above is a series of deconstructed images of a stellarator.
The upper left blue image represents the twisted plasma.
A helical toroidal chamber, which is similarly twisted, contains the nuclear plasma…
The world’s largest stellarator is the Wendelstein 7-X operated by the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP), located in Greifswald, Germany. It’s much easier to understand the twisted toroid design with the image shown below.
Wendelstein 7-X Design | Source: Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics
The interior of the reactor walls provides an excellent perspective on the twisted shape of the chamber, which will contain similarly twisted plasma…
Inside the Wendelstein 7-X Fusion Reactor | Source: Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics
But why go to all this trouble? The stellarator design is more complex than a tokamak reactor.
The reason is a good one.
The unique shape of the plasma and the helical coils produce a plasma that can be maintained without any electrical current drive.
That means that there is no need for pulsed operations.
A stellarator can operate continuously. The odd shape of the plasma is inherently more stable than a tokamak reactor.
And last week was a very exciting week for the IPP, the Wendelstein 7-X, and stellarator fusion technology.
In partnership with Thales (THLLY) – a major European aerospace and defense conglomerate – a world record for nuclear fusion was set.
Thales contributed its Gyrotron (cool name) – with its high-powered electronic vacuum tubes – to heat plasma to temperatures 10 times hotter than that of the sun’s core.
With the Gyrotron, the Wendelstein 7-X was able to produce an energy output of 1.3 megawatts for a period of 360 seconds. This is a big deal.
For comparison, when Lawrence Livermore Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) achieved its net energy fusion reaction in December 2022 – something that we explored here in The Bleeding Edge – its fusion reaction lasted for a period measured in billionths of a second. And its energy output was only enough to power a 100-watt light for about an hour.
It was the first documented net energy fusion reaction.
Now, 22 months later, the Wendelstein 7-X just ran for six minutes… and produced enough energy to power about 1,000 homes. That’s a massive difference.
While the Wendelstein 7-X is not designed with the goal of commercial operation, it is one of the most important research projects concerning stellarator technology. And the goal of the team at the IPP is to develop stellarator designs capable of commercialization.
The IPP’s recent research revealed some new designs that are optimized for commercialization.
Stable Quasi-Isodynamic Designs | Source: Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics
These new twisted toroid designs have only been tested in simulations, but they are showing great promise. They demonstrate designs that should be good for plasma confinement and stability.
While the designs shown above may look simple, they are precise and complex.
And the IPP made a notable point that designs for stellarators like these would have been impossible… five years ago.
But something’s changed…
The above stellarator designs and simulations are possible now because of the advanced supercomputing technology and the use of forms of artificial intelligence to assist in optimizing these stellarator designs.
Yes. It’s all happening right now.
With the help of artificial intelligence, nuclear fusion – true limitless, clean energy – isn’t something that is decades away.
My prediction is that in the second half of this year, we’ll see the 7-X shatter all records for longest stable fusion reaction, which will be measured in minutes instead of seconds or milliseconds.
That’s what I wrote to my readers in Outer Limits – A Stellar Breakthrough in Fusion in early April this year.
As I’ve also predicted, we’re going to see the world’s first prototype fusion reactor produce a net energy output within the next 24 months.
And it won’t be a science experiment like the National Ignition Facility.
It will be from a compact reactor design that is developed to be commercialized.
And there are two prominent, early stage companies developing commercial stellarator designs in the U.S.
Thea Energy, originally known as Princeton Stellarators, was a spin-out of a team from the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL).
And there is also Type One Energy out of Knoxville, TN, which has plans to make the former Bull Run Fossil Plant in Clinton, TN – the home of Infinity One, its first stellarator.
With progress coming so quickly now and a clear path towards commercialization, private capital is stepping up, as are corporations, to bring this incredible clean energy to life.
We have so much to look forward to.
Regards,
Jeff
The Bleeding Edge is the only free newsletter that delivers daily insights and information from the high-tech world as well as topics and trends relevant to investments.
The Bleeding Edge is the only free newsletter that delivers daily insights and information from the high-tech world as well as topics and trends relevant to investments.
