Dr Ratu Mataira
OpenStar Technologies Wellington
Fusion energy is a hot topic at the moment and does not need any introduction. Useful fusion energy has been 30 years away for the past 80 years, and although recent achievements have been advertised as “breakthroughs”, the reality is that there are still a lot of technical challenges to overcome with the current fusion devices before we are likely to see them providing electricity to the grid.
Inspired by the dipole plasma observed around Jupiter, a joint MIT-Columbia experiment was born in the early 2000’s to test a concept known as the levitated dipole reactor (LDR). The LDR boasts a wide range of plasma performance improvements over the conventional approaches to fusion and represents the first commercially relevant fusion concept that can be achieved with current technology.
OpenStar Technologies is a Wellington-based start-up developing a levitated dipole fusion reactor. In this seminar we will introduce the physics of LDRs and why a fusion company has started in New Zealand, of all places.
12.00pm Monday 29 May 2023
Room 314, Science III Building
