A Kiwi start-up has achieved a “huge milestone” in its quest for fusion energy — by creating and confining plasma for the first time in New Zealand.
“First plasma” is the moment a fusion device first creates and confines a super-hot cloud of ionised gas, with plasma being the necessary fuel to spark a fusion reaction.
In other fusion concepts, plasma is contained by superconductors pushing a field inwards. This is notoriously difficult, and OpenStar’s key engineering innovation stemmed from inverting that process using an elegant solution inspired by nature; the levitated dipole.
OpenStar chief executive and founder Ratu Mataira told Breakfast the company is not the first in the world to create “first plasma”, but the successful trial of its levitated dipole prototype has achieved a crucial step toward the creation of fusion energy.
“More importantly, it’s the moment that we know we’ve brought enough of the system together. All the parts and technologies, in a way that actually works,” he said.
He said there were many ways of achieving fusion, which counties and labs across the world were all currently working on, but OpenStar’s prototype launched New Zealand “into the race” and could potentially be achieved first.
“But the other approaches they work on — they’re expensive and complex.
“The dipole, we think, is much simpler and easier to build which is reflected in how quickly we’ve managed to turn on this prototype, which was about two years. We think it can get us to fusion potentially faster than other approaches being explored.”
He said the true race was not against other projects, but against climate change and trying to find an alternative energy source to fossil fuels.
“If one of us succeeds, the impact that will have on humanity will be history-making and humanity will never be the same and change for the better.”
“Everybody here is super proud to be part of that.”
OpenStar’s innovations were world-leading, but would not have been possible without the foundations laid by MIT, Columbia University, Tokyo University and Wellington’s own Robinson Research Institute.
The company recently signed a collaboration agreement with the MIT Plasma and Fusion Centre to investigate ion cyclotron resonance heating for OpenStar’s Levitated Dipole, a common heating method in other fusion devices. The collaboration agreement pools the resources from researchers to test advanced physics models.