Second 48-tonne half of SPARC's vacuum vessel arrives; two of 18 main magnets installed

Commonwealth Fusion Systems/SPARC

The second 48-tonne half of SPARC's steel vacuum vessel, the chamber that holds the plasma, arrived in Devens, and two of the 18 24-tonne toroidal field magnets were in place. CFS said the machine was about 75% complete and still aimed to start operating in 2027 and show net energy gain (Q>1).

• SPARC's 96-ton vacuum vessel is complete; two of 18 toroidal field magnets (each 24 tons, producing 20-tesla fields, ~13x stronger than an MRI) are installed.
• CFS plans operations to start in 2027 with the goal of achieving Q>1—net energy gain where the machine produces more energy than it consumes.
• SPARC's demonstration of Q>1 would validate the path to ARC, CFS's 400 MW commercial fusion power plant in the early 2030s.