Backed by Bill Gates, the CFS is a technology spinout from MIT and announced last year that it had built a first-of-its-kind superconducting magnet to be used in a nuclear fusion reactor. This was the first instance of a nuclear fusion experimentHow can we harness nuclear fusion energy?
Nuclear fusion is the name given to the process when smaller atoms slam into each other to produce atoms with a heavier nucleus and release high amounts of energy as a byproduct. Used by our Sun quite effectively, scientists have been trying to replicate the process on Earth to generate energy in a carbon-free way.
To do so, scientists use tokamak reactors and rely on superconducting magnets such as the one built by CFS to prevent the superheated plasma hit the walls of the reactor. CFS's superconducting magnet is made from Rare Earth Barium Copper Oxide and will help make smaller, faster, and less expensive reactors, the startup claims on its website.
With the superconducting magnet's validation having been completed, the stage is now set for a demonstration of the technology. CFS and MIT are collaborating on this front, with a facility currently under construction. Once this is completed, CFS will attempt to put in the first plasma and then harvest net energy from the reactor, a key step towards the commercialization of this technology.
'This was the first instance of a nuclear fusion experiment delivering a net energy gain'. No, it was just a magnet test.