The Sun’s surface is 15 million degrees Celsius, which is relatively balmy compared to the 75 million degrees Celsius that TAE Technologies recently generated in July. This temperature benchmark in the company’s current machine, named Norman, demonstrated “unmatched real-time control of plasma.”
Some fusion projects aim to create hundred-million degree working temperatures in magnetically confined plasma. The CEO of TAE Technologies tells us his team’s aiming for 10 times that temperature, targeting cheaper, easier and safer boron fuel.
The world has been watching the many nuclear fusion tokamak experiments with keen interest, but the stage is also set for those who are trying something a bit different, like stellarators and other reactor formats. That’s where TAE Technologies comes in.
Nuclear energy is having a moment. Last month, TAE Technologies Inc., a nuclear fusion company in southern California, raised $250 million. Industry watchers describe the company’s approach, which requires creating a fusion reaction in incredibly high heat, as perhaps the biggest scientific gamble in the field.