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OpenStar
New Zealand nuclear fusion company From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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OpenStar Technologies is a company based in Wellington, New Zealand, that is developing a nuclear fusion power reactor.[1] It aims to build a series of devices that lead to a model able to supply electricity to the grid by the 2030s.[2] While research has been conducted on fusion power for decades, no one has ever made a reactor able to supply electricity on a commercial scale.[3] Worldwide, there are about 45 companies developing nuclear fusion reactors.[4][5]
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History
The founder and CEO of OpenStar is Ratu Mataira,[6][7] who has completed a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at the Robinson Research Institute, of the Victoria University of Wellington. The institute focusses on superconductors. After Mataira first learned of the levitated dipole concept for fusion reactors in 2020,[5] which the US government defunded in 2011,[8] Mataira founded the company in 2021.[9] According to 1News, OpenStar is the first New Zealand company to try building a nuclear fusion reactor.[5]
As of 2024[update], the company has raised NZ$20 million.[8] Mataira has said that the company would need between $500 million and $1 billion to successfully develop a fusion reactor.[9] Mataira has suggested that the pharmaceutical industry may be interested in OpenStar as the company could produce isotopes required by the pharmaceutical industry that are traditionally made using nuclear fission.[5]
In November 2024, the company achieved the creation of plasma,[8] which lasted for 20 seconds at 300,000 °C (540,000 °F). Temperatures in the hundreds of millions of degrees are required for fusion to occur.[9]
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Technology
OpenStar is developing a levitated dipole reactor,[5] which uses a levitating superconducting torroidal battery-powered magnet that is placed and operates inside of a vacuum chamber of cylindrical form modified with domed ends (a capsule or spherocylinder).[2] Their first machine is named Marsden,[2] after New Zealand physicist Ernest Marsden, and its first magnet inside is named Junior.[1][8][9][11] The vacuum chamber (Marsden) diameter is about 5 metres (16 ft); the magnet (Junior) diameter is about 1 metre (3.3 ft). In most magnetic confinement fusion reactor designs, such as a tokamak, the magnets are placed outside of the vacuum chamber.[9][1] According to Mataira, "The core engineering challenge is how do you make a magnet that's surrounded by plasma operate for long enough to be useful".[9]
The firm's reactors will use the hydrogen isotopes deuterium, which has one neutron, and tritium, which has two neutrons.[12]
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References
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