Fusion energy companies pursuing conventional tokamak designs are stymied by the size, cost, complexity, and energy demands of the magnets traditionally used to trap fusion plasma inside their donut-shaped reactors. Zap Energy is betting on an alternative method called the Z‑pinch effect, in which a filament of energized deuterium-tritium gas forms its own tubular magnetic field. An effect called sheared flow stabilization keeps the filament stable. After extensive modeling and simulation, the company generated its first plasmas in 2022.
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