Liquid protection

The fact that the majority of the solid blanket materials used in these reactors to surround the fusion chamber are replaced by a liquid material that is simple to circulate and replace eliminates the need for costly replacement procedures as the materials degrade over time.

According to Whyte, “it’s an extremely harsh environment for [solid] materials,” so substituting a liquid for those materials could offer significant advantages.According to Sorbom, the reactor’s current design should be able to generate approximately three times as much electricity as is required to keep it running.

However, the design could probably be improved to increase that proportion to approximately five or six times.According to the team, this kind of net energy production would be a significant advancement in fusion technology because no fusion reactor has ever produced as much energy as it consumes.