I guess everyone in New Zealand saw this
Kiwi business thrusts New Zealand into global fusion race: One News
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.
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I'm not a fusion expert by any stretch of the imagination.
I believe the device created is more-or-less based on the Levitated Dipole Experiment (LDX).
Several parties ran it, such as MIT, Columbia University, and Department of Energy. It was abandoned primarily due to funding issues. The focus changed to tokamak reactors. As a result, the LDX project ceased operations in November 2011.
While the exact total funding amount isn't readily available, it's known that the project received tens of millions dollars over its lifetime to support the design, construction, and operation of the experiment.
The phrase "fusion is always 30 years in the future" has been echoed by many researchers and critics over the decades. It's often attributed to the physics community in general, rather than a specific individual. The sentiment reflects the long-standing challenges and slow progress in achieving practical, sustainable nuclear fusion energy.
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