
SPARC
10
MENTIONS
2
EPISODES
2
PODCASTS
Search complete. 10 mentions across 2 episodes found for "SPARC".
Oct 6, 2026
#109 - Dan Brunner - Commonwealth Fusion - Is fusion still 20 years away?
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14:30Dan BrunnerGUEST
And
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14:34Hugo RauchHOST
I guess from a Tokamak perspective, so I think Commonwealth is saying that the first reactor, which is SPARC, is going to be out next year producing energy.
H
14:44Hugo RauchHOST
What are some of the key challenges that they have to solve
D
14:49Dan BrunnerGUEST
before getting there? Oh, just for getting towards SPARC.
D
14:52Dan BrunnerGUEST
Well, I suppose I'll start from when CFS started.
D
14:55Dan BrunnerGUEST
The key thing that we innovated that allowed CFS to do what it's doing is taking this superconductor material to make the electromagnets to confine the plasma and engineering it into high-field superconducting magnets.
10 MINS LATER
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25:05Dan BrunnerGUEST
And it's sitting in a vial waiting, just waiting and eager to be burned with some deuterium.
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25:11Hugo RauchHOST
How much of it do you need to start a reactor? Because you're saying 10 grams, obviously that seems slow, but I think it has quite a lot of power.
Could fusion power plants soon be on the horizon?
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16:38Jennifer GantenGUEST
It's a really exciting time for the company.
J
16:41Jennifer GantenGUEST
We are progressing with developing our demonstration fusion power plant, it's called SPARC, here in Devens, Massachusetts, and we moved in here in, uh, 2022.
J
16:52Jennifer GantenGUEST
And if you came to campus today, you would see a campus buzzing with 1,000 people or more, uh, every day.
J
17:00Jennifer GantenGUEST
There's a factory, 150,000 square foot factory here where we make the magnets that runs three shifts.
J
17:10Jennifer GantenGUEST
We are about 80% complete with the plant at this point.
J
17:15Jennifer GantenGUEST
So really, it's, it's a beehive of activity as we're getting ready to go operational with our fusion, um, uh, demonstration plant next year, 2027.
J
17:25Jennifer GantenGUEST
So SPARC will turn on next year.
D
17:27Dan HewittHOST
Okay, so there's, there's plenty that we can unpack there.