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Fusion power startup Avalanche Energy said its reactor prototype heated a plasma to temperatures exceeding 10 million degrees Celsius, clearing a threshold closely associated with the conditions required for nuclear fusion reactions to occur.
The result was achieved in a desktop-scale device — a form factor that, if proven commercially viable, would represent a significant departure from the large, centralized fusion machines that have historically defined the field.
What Ten Million Degrees Means in Practice In nuclear fusion physics, plasma in the range of tens of millions of degrees Celsius is the environment in which hydrogen isotopes can begin to fuse and release energy — the same basic process that powers the sun.
Reaching that temperature in a compact machine is the first physical requirement on a long checklist; containing and sustaining the plasma long enough to extract net energy is the harder problem that follows.
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