“But the engineering advantages are so clear. If I want to make my magnet better, I build a new magnet on the bench, take the old magnet out, put the new magnet in. It takes me about a week. If you were doing that in tokamak land, you’re looking at a new tokamak that’s a 5- or 7-year build. You’re fighting for funding for 3 years, maybe more. The iteration pace on the other concepts is really difficult, but in dipoles we think we can make really rapid progress,” he says.
Mataira is hopeful that nuclear fusion is on the horizon and that OpenStar’s progress will contribute to tackling energy challenges in society.