Technology

Designing and building fusion energy systems to power the world

Commonwealth Fusion Systems is collaborating with MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center to build SPARC, the world’s first fusion device that produces plasmas which generate more energy than they consume, becoming the first net-energy fusion machine. SPARC will pave the way to safe, carbon-free, limitless fusion power. This compact high-field tokamak will be built with HTS magnets, allowing for a smaller device than previous magnet technology. SPARC is an important step to accelerate the development of commercial fusion energy.

Two people in orange safety vests work on the floor of a spacious hall with a crane above and an illustration of a tokamak to generate fusion power on one wall. Another wall, pierced by rectangular holes for diagnostic equipment. A third person stands on a mobile scissor lift with its platform extend upward.

Two people work on wiring connections on a D-shaped steel plate that's grooved with parallel, concentric channels.

Following the SPARC demonstration, CFS will construct ARC, the world's first fusion power plant capable of producing net electricity. ARC will provide hundreds of megawatts of grid connected electricity, demonstrating for the first time our ability to turn the promise of fusion into clean power for our homes, businesses, and communities. It will be the first example on the path to economically competitive, mass-produced fusion power plants that will provide carbon-free, safe, secure, limitless power for the world.

Two people wearing safety glasses use electronic instruments to probe a cylindrical metallic structure on a factory floor.

A new high temperature superconductor (HTS) recently reached industrial maturity: Rare Earth Barium Copper Oxide (REBCO). CFS is using HTS to manufacture the strongest fusion magnets of their kind that will enable our commercially-relevant fusion energy machine, SPARC. CFS will next scale magnet production and deliver its first fusion power plant in the next decade.

A close-up image of two people's hands as they do electrical work at a table.

Alcator C-Mod is a compact, high-magnetic field tokamak at MIT that has provided much of the research basis for SPARC. As a result of DOE funded research on Alcator C-Mod the team developed the science that retired key risk in the path toward commercial fusion. The compact configuration enabled our team to rapidly incorporate innovations and provide time sensitive answers to questions surrounding fusion science and technology. In 2016, C-Mod broke its own record for plasma pressure in a magnetically confined device, an important measurement for fusion.