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<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/"><channel><title>IEEE Spectrum</title><link>https://spectrum.ieee.org/</link><description>IEEE Spectrum</description><atom:link href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/feeds/topic/energy.rss" rel="self"></atom:link><language>en-us</language><lastBuildDate>Mon, 08 Jun 2026 14:13:03 -0000</lastBuildDate><image><url>https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNjg4NDUyMC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTgyNjE0MzQzOX0.N7fHdky-KEYicEarB5Y-YGrry7baoW61oxUszI23GV4/image.png?width=210</url><link>https://spectrum.ieee.org/</link><title>IEEE Spectrum</title></image><item><title>Fusion Startup’s Commercial Reactor Design Gets a Big Boost</title><link>https://spectrum.ieee.org/fusion-reactor-tokamak-cfs-arc</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/3d-aerial-rendering-of-a-commercial-fusion-power-plant.jpg?id=66859591&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C62%2C0%2C63"/><br/><br/><p>Nuclear fusion reactors offer the hope of vast, clean energy from the same process that powers stars. But despite decades of research, a fusion reactor that can supply practical amounts of power has proven elusive. Now startup <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/fusion-2662267312" target="_self">Commonwealth Fusion Systems</a> has revealed in depth what it says is the most complex aspect of the reactor it is constructing—the way the reactor controls the plasma responsible for generating power.</p><p>The company says its findings support its vision—a reactor that can generate 1.1 gigawatts of <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/fusion-is-having-a-moment" target="_self">fusion power</a> and deliver 400 megawatts of net electricity to the grid. “That can power about 280,000 average American homes for a year, all using an amount of fuel you could deliver in a pickup truck,” says Brandon Sorbom, cofounder and chief science officer of Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) in Devens, Mass.</p><p>The <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/mit-has-plans-for-a-real-arc-fusion-reactor" target="_self">ARC</a> (affordable, robust, compact) fusion reactor that CFS is developing is a <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ai-and-nuclear-fusion" target="_self">tokamak</a>. This is essentially a doughnut-shaped bottle that magnetically traps plasma at pressures and temperatures high enough to force atomic nuclei to fuse. A fraction of the mass of these atoms gets converted into energy. “We’re basically creating a miniature star,” Sorbom says.</p><h2>High-Temperature Superconductor Magnets</h2><p>The key innovation of the ARC reactor is the use of <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ai-data-centers-hts-superconductors" target="_self">high-temperature superconductor</a> (HTSC) magnets instead of typical superconducting magnets, which require frigid temperatures near absolute zero to work. Although HTSCs still require temperatures in the range of about 20 to 77 kelvins (-200 to -250 °C), the relative warmth in which they operate means they require dramatically less cooling equipment. This makes ARC significantly more compact and simple than previous fusion reactor designs, such as the <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/iter-fusion-reactor" target="_self">International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor</a> (ITER).</p><p class="ieee-inbody-related">RELATED: <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/fusion-2662267312" target="_blank">This Fusion Reactor Is Held Together With Tape</a></p><p>The fusion reactions generate neutrons, whose energy heats a continuously flowing loop of molten salt around the reactor’s magnetic bottle. This blanket of molten salt then heats a fluid to drive a turbine that generates electricity.</p><p>CFS researchers collaborated with scientists at MIT, Columbia, the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics and other institutions around the world to describe the scientific underpinnings of the ARC reactor. They detailed their research in <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-plasma-physics/collections/arc-fusion-power-plant-physics-basis" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">five peer-reviewed studies</a> published today in the <em><em>Journal of Plasma Physics</em></em>.</p><p>“We demonstrate that the ARC power plant has a solid foundation in physics,” Sorbom says. “The papers confirm that when we build the ARC fusion power plant, it will work.”</p><p>Roughly two-thirds of the 58 authors of the studies come from outside CFS. “These papers are not just the stamp of our validation, but that of the global fusion-science community,” Sorbom says. “And then they underwent peer review from more institutions for independent checks to make sure all our calculations were correct.”</p><h2>Managing Plasma Disruptions in Tokamaks</h2><p>The new studies detail how ARC will deal with a major challenge all fusion reactors face. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/plasma-disruption" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Plasma disruptions occur</a> when instabilities within the plasma flow lead it to spiral out of control and make contact with the reactor wall. These can not only inflict a great deal of damage—the plasma is 150 million °C and carries 12 million amperes of electrical current—but also extinguishes the plasma.</p><p>“Plasma physics is really hard,” Sorbom says. “It’s the most complicated part of the machine.”</p><p>In the new studies, the researchers describe methods for limiting the impacts of such disruptions, such as rapidly injecting massive amounts of gas into ARC as a cushion to keep the plasma from damaging the reactor. But they also have designed ARC to withstand one disruption per day and to restart the plasma within a minute without interrupting power output, Sorbom says.</p><p class="pull-quote"> “We designed ARC considering that even on the wrong side of all the uncertainties we still face, ARC will still work.” <strong>—Brandon Sorbom, Commonwealth Fusion Systems</strong></p><p>“Even if the plasma is off, the molten salt doesn’t decrease dramatically in temperature immediately,” Sorbom says. The salt can therefore continue to supply heat for electricity generation until fusion restarts.</p><p>ARC will use deuterium and tritium, two hydrogen isotopes, as its fuel. Ultimately, ARC will breed more tritium for future use, as neutrons from the plasma striking the molten salt will transmute some of the lithium within the salt to the rare hydrogen isotope. The tritium can then serve as fuel for the reactor, or help seed other power plants, “enabling the rapid scaling of this technology,” Sorbom says.</p><h2>ARC Fusion Reactor Lifetime and Maintenance</h2><p>The projected lifetime of ARC is 25 to 30 years. Its longevity depends on how long the superconducting magnets can survive damage from neutrons escaping the salt blanket. If the researchers want a fusion plant with a longer life, “we can make it slightly larger to put in more shielding between the blanket and the magnets,” Sorbom says.</p><p>The new studies explain that the reactor’s plasma fuel is held within a vacuum vessel that erodes over time. “It lasts somewhere between one to two years before it has to be replaced,” Sorbom says.</p><p>CFS has designed the vacuum vessel to be swapped out as quickly as possible. The reactor can be opened up and the salt blanket drained away so the company can cut up an old vacuum vessel and place in a new one.</p><p>ARC will have to shut down during such times, but Sorbom notes other kinds of power plants often experience outages every few years for routine maintenance as well. The startup hopes ARC will have short maintenance cycles, “a couple of months at most,” he says. The company is now collaborating with a grid operator to plan around such maintenance.</p><p>Sorbom adds that between replacements, research and development could design better vacuum vessels. “Every time we replace it, we can upgrade it,” he says. “The first may last one year. The next year, two years. Then after that, 2.5 years.”</p><p>All in all, these new studies suggest ARC is going to work, Sorbom says. “We designed ARC considering that even on the wrong side of all the uncertainties we still face, ARC will still work.”</p><p>Currently the startup is building a smaller prototype of ARC called Sparc. “Sparc is now more than 75 percent complete,” Sorbom says. The company aims for Sparc to generate its first plasma in 2027, and aims to build ARC at a site in Virginia by the early 2030s.</p><p>As thorough as the new studies are, the ARC reactor is still evolving, Sorbom adds. “We will be able to use what we learn from Sparc to make final design tweaks on ARC.”</p>]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 04 Jun 2026 14:46:59 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://spectrum.ieee.org/fusion-reactor-tokamak-cfs-arc</guid><category>Fusion-power</category><category>Tokamak</category><category>Fusion-reactor</category><category>Climate-change</category><category>Climate-tech</category><dc:creator>Charles Q. Choi</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/3d-aerial-rendering-of-a-commercial-fusion-power-plant.jpg?id=66859591&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>What It Takes for Future-Ready Power Distribution</title><link>https://spectrum.ieee.org/distribution-grid-modernization</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/utility-workers-inspect-electrical-equipment-beside-a-service-truck-on-a-grassy-site.jpg?id=66649065&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C104%2C0%2C105"/><br/><br/><p><em>This sponsored article is brought to you by <a href="https://www.bv.com/en-US/projects/georgia-power-grid-investment-plan?utm_campaign=portfolio_for_power_utilities-pp-grid_solutions-noia-26-100223&utm_id=26-100223&utm_source=publication&utm_medium=qr-code&utm_content=power-generation&utm_tactic=na&utm_term=brand-awareness_26-bolder-vision-spectrum-native-article" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Black & Veatch</a>.</em></p><p>The biggest challenge facing utilities today isn’t what it seems. It’s not demand, even as load growth accelerates. It’s not extreme weather, even as “major events” become routine. It’s not cybersecurity, even as connections expand across the grid.</p><h3></h3><br/><img alt="Man in gray blazer and blue shirt posed against a plain white background." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="65a417dd727734e41721a8a829df1ac9" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="222cc" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/man-in-gray-blazer-and-blue-shirt-posed-against-a-plain-white-background.jpg?id=66649170&width=980"/><p>The real challenge is this: Distribution systems were designed for a different reality.</p><p>Long gone are the days of predictable demand, one-way power flow and isolated disruptions. At Black & Veatch, we see that leading utilities are no longer debating whether to modernize. They’re deciding how quickly they can do it, and how to do it at scale.</p><p>Across grid modernization programs globally, three truths consistently emerge. They define what it takes to prepare the distribution system for what’s next:</p><h2>1. Outage response is not a resilience strategy</h2><p>Resilience is being redefined in real time. A strategy centered on mobilizing crews and restoring service as quickly as possible is reactive, and increasingly insufficient.</p><p>Resilience has to shift upstream into integrated system design. That starts with hardening. Stronger poles, undergrounding and structural upgrades all have a role, particularly in high-risk corridors. We’re also seeing meaningful gains from how the network is configured and how quickly it can respond without waiting on manual intervention.</p><p>This is where distribution automation programs can change outcomes. Strategically placed reclosers, automated switches and fault indicators help contain disruptions before they spread. When combined with feeder reconfiguration and updated protection strategies, distribution automation investments allow utilities to set more aggressive recovery targets and achieve measurable reductions in outage duration and customer impact.</p><h2>2. Future-readiness depends on DERs at scale</h2><p>Forecasting is less and less reliable. Only 19 percent of utilities report strong confidence in their ability to predict future load growth, according to the <a href="https://www.bv.com/en-US/resources/2025-electric-report" target="_blank">Black & Veatch 2025 Electric Report</a>.<strong> </strong>Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) like solar, storage, EVs and behind-the-meter generation are exciting solutions; but they fundamentally change how the system operates. Power is no longer just delivered. It’s injected, stored and redirected in ways the system was never designed to manage.<strong></strong></p><p>At scale, these challenges show up quickly — particularly on feeders where distributed generation is approaching or exceeding hosting capacity. Protection coordination becomes more difficult when fault current comes from multiple directions. Voltage becomes less predictable as generation fluctuates throughout the day. And planning models must now account for highly variable, location-specific behavior.</p><p class="pull-quote">Distribution modernization is fundamentally changing how the system is designed and operated so it can absorb disruption, manage bi-directional flows and respond in real time.</p><p>Adapting to bi-directional power flow requires more than incremental updates. Leading utilities are responding by building flexibility into the system, moving beyond static assumptions toward dynamic hosting capacity and interconnection studies, planning that incorporates DER, EV adoption and localized load growth, and infrastructure aligned with the communications and control needed to manage it.</p><h2>3. The edge must be intelligent, visible and secure</h2><p>As system stress and complexity increase, utilities need far greater visibility and control over the network. Historically, utilities relied on customer calls, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) at the substation level and field crews to understand what was happening on the system. That model doesn’t hold up. You can’t effectively manage a system you can’t see. Plus, the most critical events are increasingly happening beyond the substation — on feeders, laterals, and at the edge where DER and customer behavior are interacting with the grid.</p><p>Grid-edge technologies have become essential. Sensors, Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and automated switching provide the raw data and control needed to move from reactive to proactive operations. In more advanced deployments, utilities are creating centralized control environments that allow operators to see and manage the distribution system in near real time. That capability is enabled by:</p><ul><li>Advanced communications networks to form the backbone of real-time grid visibility</li><li>Distribution Management System (DMS) and Outage Management System (OMS) to enable faster, more coordinated system response</li><li>Analytics, AI and machine learning to improve situational awareness, anticipate system conditions, and support operational decision-making</li></ul><p>The same connectivity enabling this real-time visibility and control also introduces new vulnerabilities, blurring the line between physical and cyber risk, yet many utilities manage them separately. Only 22 percent have unified teams in place, even as threats continue to rise, including a 50 percent increase in substation attacks and growing exposure to malware and ransomware, according to the <a href="https://www.bv.com/en-US/resources/2025-electric-report" target="_blank">Black & Veatch 2025 Electric Report</a>. Cybersecurity and resilient network design must be embedded into the architecture from the outset—not layered on after the fact.</p><h2>See what bolder vision looks like</h2><p>Distribution modernization is fundamentally changing how the system is designed and operated so it can absorb disruption, manage bi-directional flows and respond in real time.</p><p>To learn about a successful program, check out <a href="https://www.bv.com/en-US/projects/georgia-power-grid-investment-plan?utm_campaign=portfolio_for_power_utilities-pp-grid_solutions-noia-26-100223&utm_id=26-100223&utm_source=publication&utm_medium=qr-code&utm_content=power-generation&utm_tactic=na&utm_term=brand-awareness_26-bolder-vision-spectrum-native-article" target="_blank">Georgia Power’s recent grid modernization program</a>. Black & Veatch partnered with the utility on large-scale infrastructure upgrades. The results? Outages are down 76 percent, restoration times have improved by more than 80 percent and communities across Georgia are powered by a grid built to meet the future head-on.</p><p>When the state faced the most destructive storm in the company’s history, Hurricane Helene, Georgia Power deployed a rapid response team that utilized its “smart grid” and restored power to more than 1 million customers within days.</p>A grid built to meet the future head-on—that’s the result of bolder vision.]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 03 Jun 2026 11:00:01 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://spectrum.ieee.org/distribution-grid-modernization</guid><category>Distributed-energy-resources</category><category>Grid-resilience</category><category>Power-grid</category><category>Grid-modernization</category><dc:creator>Nick Lehnert</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/utility-workers-inspect-electrical-equipment-beside-a-service-truck-on-a-grassy-site.jpg?id=66649065&amp;width=980"></media:content></item></channel></rss>