Today the company is announcing, in collaboration with Japan’s National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS), a noteworthy research advancement: the first-ever hydrogen-boron fusion experiments in a magnetically confined fusion plasma.

In a peer-reviewed paper published by Nature Communications (“First measurements of p¹¹B fusion in a magnetically confined plasma”), scientists explain the outcome of the nuclear fusion reaction of hydrogen-boron in an experiment in NIFS’ Large Helical Device (LHD). This paper describes the experimental work of producing the conditions necessary for hydrogen-boron fusion in the LHD plasma and TAE’s development of a detector to make measurements of the hydrogen-boron reaction products: helium nuclei, known as alpha particles. The finding reflects years of collaborative international scientific fusion research, and represents a milestone in TAE’s mission to develop commercial fusion power with hydrogen-boron, the cleanest, most cost-competitive, and most sustainable fuel cycle for fusion.

hydrogen-boron has a place in utility-scale fusion power

“This experiment offers us a wealth of data to work with, and shows that hydrogen-boron has a place in utility-scale fusion power. We know we can solve the physics challenge at hand and deliver a transformational new form of carbon-free energy to the world that relies on this non-radioactive, abundant fuel,” said Michl Binderbauer, CEO of TAE Technologies.

TAE is the world’s leading and largest private commercial fusion energy company, and this result represents an important step toward development of hydrogen-boron fusion. In layperson’s terms, the company is one step closer to the realization of a fusion power plant that will ultimately produce clean electricity, with only helium, also known as three alpha particles, as a byproduct. These three alpha particles are the hallmark of hydrogen-boron fusion energy, and inspired TAE’s founders to name the company Tri Alpha Energy, now TAE Technologies.

Pioneers in Fusion Science

More than 30 groups are now pursuing the development of fusion energy around the world, and approaches vary widely—from style of reactor configuration to the type of fuel the future reactors will rely on. Since TAE’s founding in 1998, the company has built five National Laboratory-scale devices and has successfully generated and confined fusion plasma more than 140,000 times. TAE is currently building and designing two more machines, Copernicus and Da Vinci, which will be able to demonstrate net energy and deliver power to the grid, respectively.

Inventing fusion reactors that produce net energy is one thing, delivering it as a reliable, grid-ready source of electricity is another. By choosing to pursue hydrogen-boron as a fuel cycle, TAE has anticipated the true demands of commercial, daily use of fusion energy. Most fusion efforts around the world are focused on combining hydrogen isotopes deuterium-tritium (D-T) to use as fuel, and the donut-shaped tokamak machines commonly used in fusion concepts are limited to D-T fuel.

Unlike those efforts, TAE’s compact linear design uses an advanced accelerator beam-driven field-reversed configuration (FRC) that is versatile, and can accommodate all available fusion fuel cycles, including p-B¹¹, D-T and deuterium-helium-3 (D-He³ or D³He). This benefit will uniquely enable TAE to license its technology on the way to its ultimate goal of connecting the first hydrogen-boron fusion power plant to the grid in the 2030s.

With the FRC, TAE is advancing a modular and easy-to-maintain design that will have a compact footprint with the potential to take advantage of a more efficient magnetic confinement methodology, which will get up to 100x more power out, as compared to tokamaks.

Hydrogen Boron advanced fusion fuel

As TAE’s colleagues at NIFS note, hydrogen-boron is considered an advanced fusion fuel because it “enable(s) the concept of cleaner fusion reactors. This achievement is a big first step towards the realization of a fusion reactor using advanced fusion fuel.”

As the paper published in Nature Communications puts it: “While the challenges of producing the fusion core are greater for p11B than D-T, the engineering of the reactor will be far simpler. … Stated simply, the p11B path to fusion trades downstream engineering challenges for present day physics challenges. And the physics challenges can be overcome.”

The hydrogen-boron approach is part of TAE’s core vision for commercial fusion energy, born of the company’s technology co-founder Dr. Norman Rostoker’s philosophy of keeping the “end in mind.” This vision for truly clean, abundant, cost-competitive energy is what sets TAE apart from a growing field of fusion companies.  While this reaction did not produce net energy, it demonstrates viability of aneutronic fusion and reliance on hydrogen-boron.

TAE expects to demonstrate net energy on its next research reactor, Copernicus, around mid-decade.

Tradition of Scholarship and Collaboration

TAE announced its partnership with NIFS in 2021, teaming up with esteemed scholars at the inter-university research institute located in Toki City, Japan. The three-year joint research project bloomed from a longstanding collaboration between American and Japanese fusion researchers to explore aneutronic fusion.

About TAE Technologies

TAE Technologies (pronounced T-A-E) was founded in 1998 to develop commercial fusion power with the cleanest environmental profile. The company’s pioneering work represents the fastest, most practical, and economically competitive solution to bring abundant clean energy to the grid. With over 1,800 patents filed globally and over 1,100 granted, $1.2 billion in private capital raised, five generations of National Laboratory-scale devices built and two more in development, and an experienced team of over 500 employees, TAE is now on the cusp of delivering this transformational energy source capable of sustaining the planet for thousands of years.

The company’s revolutionary technologies have produced a robust portfolio of commercial innovations in large adjacent markets such as power management, energy storage, electric mobility, fast charging, life sciences, and more. TAE is based in California, and maintains international offices in the UK and Switzerland. Multidisciplinary and mission-driven by nature, TAE is leveraging proprietary science and engineering to create a bright future.

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The stylish wagon has a longer body to create a significant increase in luggage space without compromising the model’s dynamic styling.

The wagon’s overall length is increased by 185 mm over its five-door sibling to 4485 mm, making it one of the most accommodating vehicles in the small segment, and 10 mm longer than the original i30 wagon.

Compared with the five-door, the wagon expands luggage space from 378-litres to 528-litres – and with the rear passenger seats folded down, cargo volume increases more than three-fold, to 1,642-litres.

Like its hatchback sibling, the next-generation i30 wagon was designed and engineered at Hyundai’s European R&D Centre in Rüsselsheim, Germany. The wagon was developed alongside the hatchback form from the earliest stages, enabling the stylists to fashion a coherent design that bears a strong family resemblance inspired by Hyundai’s fluidic sculpture form language.

As with the five-door variant, the front is distinguished by Hyundai’s hexagon-shaped grille and jewel-like headlamps, but from the B-pillar backwards the wagon differs significantly. The roofline extends rearwards over the flexible passenger/cargo area, sloping to add dynamism to the car’s stance in keeping with the fluidic sculpture ethos of a stationary car appearing to be in motion.

Further enhancing the wagon’s dynamic appearance, a pronounced crease line runs horizontally along the sides of the body and rises all the way to the tail lights. The rear windscreen wraps around the D-pillars, enhancing the light and spacious interior and benefiting visibility. The deep tailgate gives the car a clean look and opens to bumper-level for easy loading.

In Europe, the next-generation i30 wagon will be available with the same three petrol engines and three diesel engines as the five-door, producing 66 kW to 99 kW.

The next-generation i30 wagon will be unveiled alongside Hyundai’s other newcomers during the company’s press conference at the Geneva Motor Show in Hall 1 at 09:45 (CET) on Tuesday 6th March 2012.

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What’s not so good?
Low-range torque,
4 Speed Auto
Some cheap cabin fittings

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Adelaide GreenZone Drive kicked off with a flurry of activity on Thursday 20th October as South Australians took the opportunity to test drive the very latest in green cars.

The four day public event, which is part of the Veolia World Solar Challenge finish line activities at Victoria Square, hosted its first test drive at 11am on Thursday 20th October and was visited by South Australian resident motor sport legend Vern Schuppan, OAM and Deputy Lord Major of Adelaide, David Plumbridge, AM.

Mr Schuppan took the opportunity to try some of the cars available including the fully electric Nissan LEAF and Mitsubishi iMiEV.

Over 100 test drives were conducted on the first day with at least seven vehicles available to drive on the 3.5km city drive route at any one time.

The Adelaide Green Zone Drive runs until 3pm on Sunday October 23 and bookings can be made on www.greenzonedrive.com.au or on-site at Victoria Square.

The following vehicles will be available to test at the Adelaide GreenZone Drive:

Audi A1 1.4 TFSI Sport, Audi A6 3.0 TDI quattro, Audi Q5 2.0 TDI quattro, BMW 320d, BMW X1 sDrive 2.0d, Honda Jazz GLi, Honda Insight VTI-L, Mitsubishi i-MiEV (2 examples), Nissan LEAF, Renault Latitude 2.0 dCi, Renault MEGANE hatch diesel, Toyota Hybrid Camry, Toyota Prius i-TECH

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Golf BlueMotion – Combining amazing fuel economy, affordability, comfort, safety and practicality for the everyday driver

First showcased at the Australian International Motor Show in Sydney last year, Volkswagen’s new, super-efficient model – Golf BlueMotion – is finally ready to prove that amazing fuel-efficiency can still be obtained in an everyday car. The Golf BlueMotion combines efficiency with comfort and equipment to create a vehicle that delivers greater economy and fewer emissions, yet performs and appears like any other Volkswagen product.

The name BlueMotion not only refers to the model, its fuel economy and emissions, but comprehensively to the whole brand: Blue is the corporate colour of Volkswagen and stands for the elements to be protected such as water and air; Motion embodies the aspect of forward, future-directed mobility with the goal to protect the earth’s resources for future generations.

The Golf BlueMotion brings an exclusive package of visual and technical measures to achieve astonishing fuel economy of just 3.8L/100km and significantly reducing CO2 emissions to only 99g/ km whilst offering the everyday comfort, safety and practicality of a well-equipped five-door hatch.

The Golf BlueMotion is equipped with an exceedingly innovative high-tech package yet is affordable for all drivers. This package includes an efficient common rail TDI engine developing 77kW of power and features several systems and modifications to optimise efficiency. These include a Start / Stop system, and a multifunction computer providing visual gear change recommendation for optimum fuel consumption. Low rolling resistance tyres are also fitted to reduce the drag of the vehicle.

The result is a competitively-priced vehicle that will match or beat hybrids currently available in the market while being conventional to drive, service and repair.

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