University announces massive investment to aid development of limitless energy machine: 'Exciting new technology with huge room to run'
Leaders at the University of Arizona (UA) — Suresh Garimella, UA President; and Tomás Díaz de la Rubia, UA Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation — have publicized the university's research priorities, of which fusion energy is top of mind.
Of the recent $20 million investment the university received from the Arizona Board of Regents' Technology and Research Initiative fund, the budget will be split among three primary research areas: space and national security, fusion energy, and artificial intelligence and health. Though the university does not have concrete numbers for dispersing the investment just yet, it does anticipate spending more on the first two research areas to secure appropriate equipment, facilities, and laboratories.
The UA leaders are especially enthusiastic about investing in fusion energy development and pursuing fusion commercialization, which could generate a $68 trillion increase in global Gross Domestic Product, according to their opinion piece published on The Hill.
"Fusion is the process that powers the stars, including our sun, which is the original source of energy that sustains life on Earth," explained UA spokesperson Mitch Zak, per Tucson.com.
Fusion energy is abundant and doesn't produce long-lasting radioactive nuclear waste, like fission energy does, per the International Atomic Energy Agency, holding great potential to power cities and towns with affordable, renewable, clean energy. Transitioning from dirty fuels to cleaner energy reduces harmful gas pollution, which can improve people's respiratory health.
UA's support for the fusion industry in successfully achieving fusion commercialization could help Arizona and the country achieve greater energy security. Limitless and affordable fusion energy could help address the state's water scarcity problems (desalinating water) and AI's growing energy demands.
Powering the country with domestically produced renewable energy positions the country to be in a place of greater security, reducing reliance on imported energy and shielding from the volatility of international energy prices.
According to Tucson.com, the university plans to improve fusion technology to reduce the associated risks of current fusion processes, to ultimately support the private sector in developing a successful fusion reactor.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems, an MIT energy startup backed by Bill Gates, is one such company moving towards a viable tokamak reactor. The company has installed a 75-ton cryostat base to help keep the reactor's magnets at 487 degrees Fahrenheit, which creates a plasma condition that is hotter than the sun.
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In another instance, nuclear experts at General Atomics successfully surpassed the "Greenwald limit," the threshold in reaction experiments where the fusion process tends to become rampant. Some calculation adjustments allowed the team to exceed the Greenwald limit by 20% and achieve a 50% greater energy confinement quality.
"This (fusion) is exciting new technology with huge room to run and has moved very rapidly — the last decade has seen more progress than in my lifetime — and I would love to see that come to commercial power in the next decade," said U.S. energy secretary Chris Wright, per Tucson.com.
"We're very fortunate that the Arizona Board of Regents enabled us to get started. Our job now is to take that seed and turn it into a significant program of federal research," said Diáz de la Rubia, per Tucson.com.
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