Part 4/12:
Kirtley underscores that in stars like our Sun, fusion fuels nucleosynthesis, creating heavier elements over billions of years. Terrestrial fusion aims to replicate this process safely and efficiently, unlocking vast energy reserves from abundant and accessible sources.
Advances in Fusion: Beyond Traditional Designs
Helion Energy employs pulsed magnetoinertial fusion, a different approach from the conventional tokamaks and stellarators that have dominated fusion research. While tokamaks (donut-shaped devices) use magnetic fields to confine plasma, and stellarators twist magnetic coils into complex shapes, Helion’s linear approach uses pulsed magnetic fields to compress and heat plasma rapidly.