Commonwealth Fusion Systems is the world’s leading commercial fusion-energy company. I toured their headquarters and production facilities in Devens, MA on Friday as part of a Council on Foreign Relations delegation.
The visit was off-the-record so I refer here to their website, which says the company seeks to “deliver the urgent transition to fusion energy” in order to “unlock humanity’s boundless potential.” I never thought I’d see large-scale fusion as part of our energy mix in my lifetime, but we are on that doorstep right now. Fusion may well be the future and that future is found right here on the old Fort Devens site.
The key technological breakthrough making this possible was CFS’ development of the world’s strongest, high-temperature superconducting magnet. With plasma temperatures of 160 million degrees inside a fusion chamber - equal to the heat found at the core of a star - no physical material can possibly contain it. Only a giant electromagnetic field can do so.
The old line that "fusion is 20 years away and always will be" could soon be retired.
(From CFS Press Release with Photo, November 18, 2024 - Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) announced today it successfully built and tested a record-breaking electromagnet called the Central Solenoid Model Coil (CSMC), a major step on the company’s path to bring clean, abundant fusion power to the grid.)