Eni announces magnetic fusion breakthrough

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 8 - Eni announced on Wednesday that CFS, a spin-out company of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that the Italian energy giant is a major shareholder in, has made a breakthrough towards achieving magnetic confinement fusion.
    It said CFS (Commonwealth Fusion Systems) has successfully completed a test aiming to demonstrate the operation of the innovative magnet for plasma fusion confinement, for the first time made with HTS (High Temperature Superconductor) technology.
    Magnetic confinement fusion, a technology never tested or applied on an industrial scale before, reproduces the principles through which the Sun generates its own energy, ensuring an enormous quantity of it with zero emissions.
    It is potentially a safe, sustainable and inexhaustible energy source and the breakthrough could be a turning point in the path towards decarbonization.
    Eni said that CFS intends to build the first experimental device with net energy production named SPARC by 2025, followed by the first demonstration plant, known as ARC, which could start feeding energy into the grid over the next decade.
    "For Eni, magnetic confinement fusion holds a pivotal role in the technological research for decarbonization, as it will consent humanity to access large quantities of energy produced in a safe, clean and virtually inexhaustible way, without emissions and changing for good energy generation standards, while contributing to an epochal breakthrough in the direction of human progress and quality of life," said Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi in a statement .
    "The extraordinary result obtained during the test once again demonstrates the strategic importance of our research partnerships in the energy sector and consolidates our contribution to the development of game changer technologies".
    (ANSA).