Talk-Polywell.org

Though TAE and other companies think fusion will become viable in the next decade or so, Prager thinks 20 years is a more realistic timeline to produce net electricity from fusion. “I do have a fear that after five, 10 years when these companies don't deliver, it could smear the field a little bit,” said Prager.

They pretty much have to take this view, otherwise they should just shut down, shouldn't they.

From the point of view of humanity's future, it's good for TAE to stay in the race in case the lead horses do fall down. That doesn't mean the lead horses will.

A detailed summary of the TAE Technologies achievements was given by Michl Binderbauer on the 5th of May 2022 with the title Burning plasma aspects and reactor concept based on the FRC approach, https://www.burningplasma.org/resources ... -04-22.pdf.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/u ... 022-07-19/

TAE Technologies, a private company hoping to revolutionize electricity generation with nuclear fusion, said on Tuesday it has raised $250 million in its latest funding from new investors like Chevron and existing ones including Google.

California-based TAE has raised $1.2 billion to date for research in fusion, the same process that powers the sun. It sees non-radioactive hydrogen-boron as the ideal fusion fuel.

As part of that announcement is that TAE achieved 75 million C instead of the 30 million C for their machine called 'Norman.' This means that their next machine has only modest target improvement needed. This is what one would expect to see as the technology matures.

What this also means is that milestone timelines can be expected to accelerate, where construction becomes the main lead time. Moreover, as the teams become seasoned, construction timelines come down to how fast can deliveries take place. Indeed, Zap Energy is breaking their latest efforts into parallel paths to shorten time to commercial.

TAE next machine, Copernicus, will prove break even, but TAE has a significant goal of pB11 fueled fusion, so their risk is not fusion, but is the risk of fusing such a difficult, very high energy fuel. It is a laudable goal, but Helion, I think, has a more practical fuel for achieving the same purpose and therefore will achieve commercial maybe 5 years earlier.

Time is everything.

World Nuclear News is chiming in:

https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Arti ... next-fusio

Dennis Whyte has said in one of his online lectures that the plasma in this approach is a thousand times to leaky. What does he mean with that?

TAE ahead of schedule on billion-degree hydrogen-boron fusion
August 12, 2022
https://newatlas.com/energy/tae-fusion-interview/

Well written, comprehensive article. Unusual.

First measurements of hydrogen-boron fusion in a magnetically confined fusion plasma
https://phys.org/news/2023-02-hydrogen- ... lasma.html

"While this reaction did not produce net energy, it demonstrates viability of aneutronic fusion and reliance on hydrogen-boron."

Also, Copernicus is supposed to demonstrate net power in a couple of years (mid decade).

New video on their youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeMcaBy4HPU

New video on their youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeMcaBy4HPU

TAE has sent out reservation invitations for a 'virtual tour'.
Register for TAE Technologies' Virtual Tour

WHEN: Thursday, May 9 at 10a PDT/1p EDT/6p BST
WHERE: Zoom
SIGN UP: Tour Registration Form
https://tae.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN ... gistration

TAE Technologies Virtual Tour
Date & Time May 9, 2024 01:00 PM in
Eastern Time (US and Canada)
DescriptionJoin us to learn how TAE is scaling toward grid-ready fusion!

CEO Michl Binderbauer will guide a virtual tour of our California-based lab and fifth-generation experimental research reactor, “Norman,” followed by a Q&A with VP of Fusion Science Erik Trask.

Registration is required.

mvanwink5 wrote: ↑

Fri May 03, 2024 2:09 am

TAE has sent out reservation invitations for a 'virtual tour'.
Register for TAE Technologies' Virtual Tour

WHEN: Thursday, May 9 at 10a PDT/1p EDT/6p BST
WHERE: Zoom
SIGN UP: Tour Registration Form
https://tae.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN ... gistration

TAE Technologies Virtual Tour
Date & Time May 9, 2024 01:00 PM in
Eastern Time (US and Canada)
DescriptionJoin us to learn how TAE is scaling toward grid-ready fusion!

CEO Michl Binderbauer will guide a virtual tour of our California-based lab and fifth-generation experimental research reactor, “Norman,” followed by a Q&A with VP of Fusion Science Erik Trask.

Registration is required.

I don't think they have the funding for the new machine yet. They got a building so far from what I last saw but the actual machine is still not fully funded, I think.

I don't think they have the funding for the new machine yet.

These privately funded machines get their funding from multiple deep pockets from around the world, hard to know what negotiations & musical chairs is taking place today. Last I had heard:
https://tae.com/tae-technologies-exceed ... n-to-date/
Still, TAE is not acting like they need to beat the drums. It is hard to find any fusion project not being funded, even the really out there ideas, real talent would be more the issue, or logistics would be my guess. Helion, for instance, reported they had hard work to do to deal with logistics, which they solved.

TAE's p-B machine, Da Vinci, is the big step, and Copernicus could be used to design an interim commercial machine.

Have you heard something?

The last update I'm aware of is from the Fusion Power Associates 2023 meeting in last December: On the Path to a Pilot Plant:Michl Binderbauer, TAE Technologies http://firefusionpower.org/FPA23_Binderbauer_TAE.pdf.