page_title: Fusion power
section_title: 2000s
hierarchical_section_title: Fusion power / History / 2000s
caption_attribution_description: English: A typical plasma in the MAST spherical tokamak machine at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in the UK. The image shows the main plasma as the sphere in the center of the image. The elongations at the top and bottom are extensions to the plasma where it flows to ring-shaped "diverters" at the top and bottom of the reactor. Diverters help shape the plasma, as well as clear it of heavier impurities and fusion ash. The central column is prominent, and some details of the test chamber can be seen. Français&#160;: Plasma typique formé dans la machine tokamak sphérique MAST du Centre Culham pour l'étude de l'énergie de fusion au Royaume-Uni. L'image montre le plasma principal (sphère au centre de l'image). Les allongements visibles dans les parties supérieure et inférieure de l'image sont des extensions du plasma dévié vers l'anneau, dans le haut et le bas du réacteur. Ces déviations contribuent à façonner le plasma, mais aussi à en ôter les impuretés et des résidus de fusion. l'image montre aussi la colonne centrale et certains détails de la chambre d'essai.
context_page_description: Fusion power is a proposed form of power generation that would generate electricity by using heat from nuclear fusion reactions. In a fusion process, two lighter atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, while releasing energy. Devices designed to harness this energy are known as fusion reactors.
  Fusion processes require fuel and a confined environment with sufficient temperature, pressure, and confinement time to create a plasma in which fusion can occur. The combination of these figures that results in a power-producing system is known as the Lawson criterion. In stars, the most common fuel is hydrogen, and gravity provides extremely long confinement times that reach the conditions needed for fusion energy production. Proposed fusion reactors generally use hydrogen isotopes such as deuterium and tritium, which react more easily than hydrogen to allow them to reach the Lawson criterion requirements with less extreme conditions. Most designs aim to heat their fuel to tens of millions of degrees, which presents a major challenge in producing a successful design.
  As a source of power, nuclear fusion is expected to have several advantages over fission.
context_section_description: In the March 8, 2002 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Science, Rusi P. Taleyarkhan and colleagues at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) reported that acoustic cavitation experiments conducted with deuterated acetone (C₃D₆O) showed measurements of tritium and neutron output consistent with the occurrence of fusion. Taleyarkhan was later found guilty of misconduct, the Office of Naval Research debarred him for 28 months from receiving Federal Funding, and his name was listed in the 'Excluded Parties List'.
  "Fast ignition" was developed in the late nineties, and was part of a push by the Laboratory for Laser Energetics for building the Omega EP system. This system was finished in 2008. Fast ignition showed such dramatic power savings that ICF appears to be a useful technique for energy production. There are even proposals to build an experimental facility dedicated to the fast ignition approach, known as HiPER.
  In April 2005, a team from UCLA announced it had devised a way of producing fusion using a machine that "fits on a lab bench", using lithium tantalate to generate enough voltage to smash deuterium atoms together. The process, however, does not generate net power (see Pyroelectric fusion). Such a device would be useful in the same sort of roles as the fusor.
  In 2006, China's EAST test reactor is completed. This was the first tokamak to use superconducting magnets to generate both the toroidal and poloidal fields.
  In the early 2000s, Researchers at LANL reasoned that a plasma oscillating could be at local thermodynamic equilibrium. This prompted the POPS and Penning trap designs. At this time, researchers at MIT became interested in fusors for space propulsion and powering space vehicles. Specifically, researchers developed fusors with multiple inner cages. Greg Piefer graduated from Madison and founded Phoenix Nuclear Labs, a company that developed the fusor into a neutron source for the mass production of medical isotopes. Robert Bussard began speaking openly about the Polywell in 2006. He attempted to generate interest in the research, before his death. In 2008, Taylor Wilson achieved notoriety for achieving nuclear fusion at 14, with a homemade fusor.
  In March 2009, a high-energy laser system, the National Ignition Facility (NIF), located at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, became operational.
  The early 2000s, saw the founding of a number of privately backed fusion companies pursuing innovative approaches with the stated goal of developing commercially viable fusion power plants. Secretive startup Tri Alpha Energy, founded in 1998, began exploring a field-reversed configuration approach. In 2002, Canadian company General Fusion began proof-of-concept experiments based on a hybrid magneto-inertial approach called Magnetized Target Fusion. These companies are funded by private investors including Jeff Bezos (General Fusion) and Paul Allen (Tri Alpha Energy). Toward the end of the decade, UK-based fusion company Tokamak Energy started exploring spherical tokamak devices.
caption: The Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak became operational in the UK in 1999
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