Alternative fusion devices

Economically viable energy production based on nuclear fusion in a magnetic confinement device has not been demonstrated yet. The mainstream tokamak, stellarator, spheromak and reversed field pinch designs may achieve energy production by fusion in the future, but it remains to be seen whether these designs will lead to economically viable and attractive power plants, as fusion reactors based on these designs will almost certainly need to be very large.

Given this situation, there is considerable interest in developing alternative designs with the goal of achieving fusion at lower cost by exploiting hypothetical improved confiment properties, which would allow a reduced size of the power plant. Currently, none of the alternative designs have achieved these potential benefits.

Alternative designs and associated companies

• Levitated Dipole Experiment
• Tri Alpha Energy
• Polywell (EMC2 company)
• General Fusion
• Compact Fusion (Lockheed Martin, Skunkworks)