In a first, a Chinese company has achieved high-parameter hydrogen-boron plasma control, marking a “significant and valuable” advance in research into neutron-free magnetic confinement fusion.
ENN Group, based in Langfang, Hebei province, announced on Monday that its EXL-50U spherical device – a compact tokamak that uses a magnetic field to confine charged gas, or plasma, for nuclear fusion research – had successfully achieved hydrogen-boron fusion reactions.
“This marks the first time a commercial fusion company has achieved a hydrogen-boron fusion reaction on its own device,” the company stated.
Currently, mainstream-controlled nuclear fusion research, represented by the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France, predominantly uses deuterium-tritium (D-T) as fuel.