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“The researchers’ latest measurements showed electron pressures reaching 830 megapascals,” reports Interesting Engineering. “When both electrons and ions are accounted for, the total plasma pressure approached 1.6 gigapascals (GPa).” That’s 10 times the amount of pressure felt at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in any of our oceans – or about 10,000 times the atmospheric pressure we feel at sea level.

The Seattle-based startup is using a Z-pinch experiment, which is a kind of system that uses electrical currents to create a magnetic field to control and contain plasma. As the field of fusion research becomes more diverse and competitive, approaches to achieving plasma are becoming more diverse as well. Whereas the oldest and largest experiments use tokamaks – huge donut-shaped machines that control plasma with magnets – and some of the most accomplished fusion experiments are laser-controlled, Z-pinch machines are emerging as a promising alternative.

Zap Energy’s newest prototype, the Fusion Z-pinch Experiment 3 (FuZE-3) device,  enables the achievement of extreme pressures and temperatures in a system that is far more compact than leading alternatives. “The capability to independently control plasma acceleration and compression gives us a new dial to tune the physics and increase the plasma density,” Colin Adams, Zap Energy’s head of experimental physics, told Interesting Engineering. “The two-electrode systems have been effective at heating, but lacked the compression targeted in our theoretical models.”

This breakthrough alone is not enough to usher in commercial nuclear fusion, but it is one of many exciting milestones that prove that that once purely aspirational achievement is now just around the corner. And Zap Energy thinks that it’s FuZE-3 machine could be integral to that achievement. As Ben Levitt, Zap Energy’s R&D vice president, wrote in a recent press release,“[FuZE-3] was built and commissioned just recently, we’re generating lots of high-quality shots with high repeatability, and we have plenty of headroom to continue making rapid progress in fusion performance,”

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com

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