Newsweek reporter Tom Howarth spotlights MIT spinout Commonwealth Fusion Systems as they announced plans to “build the world's first grid-scale commercial nuclear fusion power plant” in Virginia. “The plant is expected to generate 400 megawatts of electricity, enough to power approximately 150,000 homes or large industrial facilities,” writes Howarth.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems, an MIT spinoff, plans to build “the nation’s first grid-scale fusion power plant in Virginia by the early 2030s,” reports Laura Vozzella and Gregory S. Schneider for The Washington Post. “Fusion is a long-sought source of power that can generate almost limitless energy by combining atomic nuclei,” they write. “It is unlike fission, the more common form of nuclear energy, in which the nucleus is split, and which generates large amounts of radioactive waste.”
MIT spinoff Commonwealth Fusion Systems has shared their plans “to build its first commercial power plant” in Virginia, reports Aaron Pressman for The Boston Globe. “Commonwealth aims to build a complete power plant with a fusion machine generating heat used to spin turbines and make 400 megawatts of electric power, enough to supply 150,000 homes, by the mid-2030s,” explains Pressman.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems, an MIT spinout, has announced plans to “build its first fusion power plant in Virginia, with the aim of generating zero-emissions electricity there in the early 2030s,” reports Raymond Zhong for The New York Times. “The proposed facility is among the first to be announced that would harness nuclear fusion, the process that powers the sun, to produce power commercially, a long-elusive goal that scientists have pursued for the better part of a century,” explains Zhong.
MIT spinout Commonwealth Fusion Systems has announced plans to build the “world’s first grid-scale fusion power plant in Virginia, to generate power by the early 2030s,” reports Timothy Gardner for Reuters. The project, “could revolutionize the global energy industry by tapping into a virtually limitless power source, similar to that which fuels the stars,” writes Gardner.
Researchers at MIT have developed a “new type of transistor using semiconductor nanowires made up of gallium antimonide and iridium arsenide,” reports Alex Knapp for Forbes. “The transistors were designed to take advantage of a property called quantum tunneling to move electricity through transistors,” explains Knapp.
Prof. Jacopo Buongiorno speaks with Nature reporter Davide Castelvecchi about how AI has increased energy demand and the future of nuclear energy.
Prof. Jacopo Buongiorno speaks with Nature reporter Michael Greshko about the reopening of Three Mile Island, a former Pennsylvania nuclear power plant that will now be used to generate power for artificial intelligence. “It’s further confirmation of the value of nuclear, and, if the deal is right — if the price is right — then it makes business sense, as well,” says Buongiorno.
Prof. Jacopo Buongiorno speaks with ABC News reporter Julia Jacobo about the reopening of Three Mile Island, a former Pennsylvania nuclear power plant, to generate power for artificial intelligence. “Since building a new nuclear power plant can be so time consuming and expensive, extending the license of current plants or refurbishing and restarting those that have been recently shutdown is a very attractive proposition,” says Buongiorno.
Graduate student Zoe Fisher speaks with Yusuf Khan of The Wall Street Journal’s about what inspired her to pursue a career in nuclear engineering, noting that being able to fight climate change firsthand is one of the key reasons she wanted to make a career in nuclear.. “It’s a cool thing to study that is going to have a lot of broader impacts,” Fisher says.
Writing for Nature, Marinko Sarunic and Cynthia Toth memorialize the life and work of Joseph A. Izatt PhD '91, who “had a special gift, and commitment, to reaching out and working with students and clinicians to create transformative technology." After undergraduate studies at MIT, Izatt focused on applied optics for his graduate work, with his mentors Prof. Michael Feld and Prof. James Fujimoto.
Research affiliate Thomas Neff, a physicist known for his proposal aimed at “reducing the global stockpile of nuclear weapons and helping stabilize the former Soviet Union,” has died at age 80, reports Harrison Smith for the Washington Post. Credited with the “Megatons to Megawatts” agreement, “Dr. Neff spent years working in arms control, nuclear weapons proliferation and uranium markets, bridging the divide between experts who specialized in the kind of highly enriched uranium used for warheads and the far less enriched version used for electricity generation,” Smith writes.
Research affiliate Thomas Neff, a physicist whose work with nuclear weapon conversion led to an agreement “that reduced nuclear threats and produced one of the greatest peace dividends of all time,” has died at the age of 80, reports William J. Broad for The New York Times. Neff’s idea of converting Soviet nuclear weapons into electricity used to power American cities “turned some 20,000 Russian nuclear arms into electricity, lighting billions of American lightbulbs.”
Prof. R. Scott Kemp and Principal Research Scientist Charles Forsberg speak with Verge reporter Justine Calma about the nuclear proliferation concerns raised by the higher concentrations of uranium used in next-generation nuclear reactors. “We need to make sure that we don’t get in front of ourselves here and make sure that all the security and safety provisions are in place first before we go off and start sending [high-assay low-enriched uranium] all around the country,” says Kemp.
Explaining China’s increasing advantage over the U.S. in fusion technology, Prof. Dennis Whyte is interviewed for a Wall Street Journal article by Jennifer Hiller and Sha Hua. Noting China took just 10 years to build world-class fusion research facilities, Whyte says “it was almost like a flash that they were able to get there. Don’t underestimate their capabilities about coming up to speed.”