A small start-up in New Zealand claims it has created plasma, the first step towards nuclear fusion, in under two years and for less than $10mn after experimenting with an unconventional reactor design. OpenStar, founded by chief executive Ratu Mataira in 2021 in his Wellington apartment, said on Tuesday that it had created and contained a plasma cloud at around 300,000 degrees Celsius for 20 seconds in its first experimental reactor. While much higher plasma temperatures are required to achieve nuclear fusion, OpenStar’s test stands apart for its unconventional reactor design, which the company said could be faster to scale and commercialise. The promise of fusion — in which hydrogen isotopes collide with each other inside a plasma and fuse, resulting in the release of enormous amounts of energy — has tantalised researchers for decades.
https://www.openstar.tech/
