Local delivery for Gene Directed Enzyme Prodrug Therapy

Sur le terrain de la fusion nucléaire, l'intelligence artificielle pourrait bientôt jouer un rôle majeur. Des chercheurs de l'École Polytechnique d

Voici un aperçu rapide des principales start-up développant des réacteurs nucléaires (avec un peu de chauvinisme, donc nos 3 français NAAREA, Jimmy et Renaissance Fusion). Ces acteurs se concentrent essentiellement sur des projets de type petits réacteurs modulaires (SMR) et micro réacteurs modulaires (MMR).
Les anglo-saxons sont surreprésentés, notamment dans la fusion nucléaire. Notons que dans ce domaine, une seule start-up d'Europe continentale a réalisé une levée de fonds significative, l'Allemand Marvel Fusion (non représenté dans l'illustration car puissance du réacteur envisagé non disponible).
L'absence d'acteurs russes et chinois s'explique par le manque de données disponibles et par le poids des entreprises et organismes de recherche publics dans ces deux pays. La France est historiquement sur un modèle assez proche mais il y a actuellement une volonté claire du gouvernement de favoriser l'émergence de start-up pour dynamiser le développement de réacteurs innovants.

In a tokamak reactor, controlling this plasma requires constant monitoring of the magnetic field. The DeepMind team was able to train their reinforcement-learning algorithm to control plasma in a computer simulation. After the AI successfully controlled the virtual plasma, it was then allowed to control the magnets in the Variable Configuration Tokamak (TCV), an experimental reactor in Lausanne, Switzerland. The AI was able to control the plasma for a total of two seconds, which is the total amount of time the TCV reactor can run before it overheats.

Chinese scientists in Shanghai have been working on a project to replicate the sun’s energy process with a comparatively low-cost approach and, after a year of experiments, the technique has shown promise, according to the South China Morning Post. “Our goal is to achieve sustainable fusion,” project lead Zhang Zhe from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Physics in Beijing said in a phone interview to SCMP.

According to the Financial Times report, one glass of the fuel used for fusion energy has the energy potential of one million gallons of oil and can power a home for 800 years. Of course, there have been several technological boundaries in the way of achieving net fusion energy production in recent years, including the production of magnets powerful enough to maintain the super-hot plasma required for fusion.

For eight years, our experts have been supporting the intergovernmental organization ITER to make commercial nuclear fusion reactors a reality and unlock a large-scale, low-carbon energy source based on the same principle that powers our sun and stars. Tractebel’s teams have worked on various contracts, from assistance to the Project Owner, to facilities design projects and reviews of the execution studies and documents . Following this long and successful collaboration, ITER has awarded Tractebel a new four-year contract to continue supervising the design and construction of the buildings.

This milestone actually matters. A burning plasma means plenty of energy production and now we can really scale up with condidence and generate sustainable energy production. hopefully we can do a lot better than heat water, though we will catch plenty of that. We actually have way too few methods of producing eneergy but no one ever mentions that.

Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory took a critical step towards viable, self-sustaining nuclear fusion by creating so-called 'burning plasma.'

A few recent breakthroughs have left nuclear fusion on the cusp of elusive ‘ignition’. Will it come in time to help the world decarbonise by 2050?

Our mission is to change the way the world generates power – forever. We are developing a scalable fusion solution that will give the world an attractive new base-load power source that is plentiful, safe, cost effective, secure and clean.

KF will support the development of several global fusion programs, including the U.K.'s STEP nuclear fusion prototype reactor. The STEP program aims to tap into the potential of nuclear fusion, the much-hyped process that produces energy in the same way as the stars and the Sun and could provide practically limitless sustainable electricity.

As the world continues its journey towards using more sustainable energy sources, nuclear continues to be an important technology. While wind, solar, and hydroelectric power might steal the spotlight in green circles, nuclear power generation technologies are also continuing to develop greener – and more efficient – solutions.

The world’s largest and most powerful magnet, the “Central Solenoid,” is finally here—or at least, the first piece of it is. Fully assembled, it will be 59 feet tall, 14 feet wide, and weigh about 1,000 tons, meaning the decade-in-the-making magnet will be truly massive. Appropriately, it will find a home in southern France at the world’s largest fusion reactor, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), by 2023.

Une trentaine de start-up sont actuellement positionnées sur ce segment, stimulé par les innovations technologies (électroaimants, lasers, etc.), l'envolée des financements privés et un intérêt accru des pouvoirs publics. L’une de ces start-up, l’américaine Commonwealth Fusion Systems, espère réaliser le premier réacteur à fusion produisant davantage d’énergie qu’il n’en consomme à l’horizon 2025. Si elle y parvient, elle devancerait le projet Iter qui réunit théoriquement les efforts des plus grands pays du monde et a été amorcé il y a une quarantaine d’années.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems a levé, en décembre 2021, le plus gros investissement privé jamais réalisé dans la fusion nucléaire : 1,8 Md$ (≈1,6 Md€) auprès du fonds américain Tiger Global Management, de nombreux investisseurs privés (dont Bill Gates) et des grands groupes (Google, Eni et Equinor). En novembre dernier, Helion avait levé 500 M$ (≈440 M€) et General Fusion 130 M$ (≈115 M€). Autre acteur majeur, TAE a été fondé dès 1998 et a levé près de 900 M$ (≈800 M€), dont 280 M$ en avril 2021.
Notons aussi que l’Allemand Marvel Fusion (qui travaille en partenariat avec Thales, Siemens Energy et Trumpf) a levé 35 M€ en février 2022, une première pour un acteur d’Europe continentale. 
En France, Renaissance Fusion, fondée en 2020, se distingue de la plupart des autres start-up en misant sur le développement d'un stellarator et non d'un tokamak. Très ambitieuse, elle ambitionne la construction d'un premier prototype de taille commerciale d'ici une dizaine d'année. Elle pourrait pour cela bénéficier d'une partie des 500 M€ du plan France 2030 dédiés aux réacteurs innovants (enveloppe qui exclue le SMR Nuward d'EDF, qui bénéficiera d'un financement spécifique de 500 M€).

More than $3bn was invested in nuclear fusion startups last year — just one of the growing signs that this clean nuclear energy source, previously seen as the realm of science fiction, may be becoming a reality. In the nuclear energy available today, atoms are split to extract large quantities of energy — nuclear fission. But imagine if instead of splitting atoms one could merge them — fusion — and get the same amount of energy while creating vastly less radioactive waste.

Pulsar Fusion Ltd., a nuclear fusion company based in the United Kingdom, has recently designed and successfully tested its first launch-capable, high-power chemical rocket engine.

The company's bid to provide the world with near-limitless energy uses a combination of spherical tokamaks and high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets. According to reports, tests of the new power electronics showed twice the efficiency of previous systems.

During the recent experiments, the scientists at the facility were able to generate 59 megajoules of energy sustained over a five-second period. This is far higher than the 22 megajoules of energy the facility had managed to produce in its 1997 experiment. During the recent experiment, the average power produced was 11 megawatts per second, the statement said.

Tokamak Network is a platform designed to assure decentralized and secure property the same as Ethereum Main chain while supporting a high level of scalability and extendability. Each Dapp is built easily for a specific purpose through Tokamak Network. Tokamak Network has each Dapp to operate in its own chain. Layer 2 chains are connected to Ethereum’s Main Chain via the Tokamak Protocol. The Tokamak TON token is used as an incentive to correctly decentralize the Tokamak Layer 2 chain. The service operator must deposit TON to open the Layer 2 chain. If the chain runs properly, this deposit will gradually increase.

US government scientists said on Wednesday they have taken an important step in the long trek toward making nuclear fusion - the very process that powers stars - a viable energy source for humankind. Using the world's largest laser, the researchers coaxed fusion fuel for the first time to heat itself beyond the heat they zapped into it, achieving a phenomenon called a burning plasma that marked a stride toward self-sustaining fusion energy.

The prospect of a nuclear fusion reactor near Goole has moved closer to reality as officials seek public consultation on the building of a power plant in the area. STEP, or Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production, is a UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) programme that is promising to pave the way for the development of new commercial power plants. There are currently five potential sites for the project and residents and stakeholders are being invited to provide feedback on the proposals.

The push for green energy is gaining momentum by the day. Governments around the world are trying to put their best foot forward to tackle climate change in line with the UN’s agenda of carbon neutrality by 2050. With investors and activists adding to the momentum rooting for a sustainable and cleaner world, global oil companies are at the crossroads of the energy transition. Major European energy companies such as BP, Royal Dutch Shell, TotalEnergies, ConocoPhillips, Equinor, and Italy's Eni are turning towards low carbon and renewable energy already. All these companies have made commitments to cut emissions to net-zero by 2050 and massive reduction in oil production is the only way to achieve these targets. “While some oil and gas companies have taken steps to support efforts to combat climate change, the industry as a whole could play a much more significant role through its engineering capabilities, financial resources and project management expertise,” reads the IEA’s Oil and Gas Industry in Energy Transitions 2020 report.

Supported by technology partners Siemens Energy, TRUMPF, and Thales, Marvel Fusion is pursuing the usage of short-pulse laser and nanotechnologies to trigger non-thermal nuclear fusion reactions. The approach is based upon 2018 Nobel Prize-winning work pioneered by Donna Strickland and Gérard Mourou and uses precisely controlled laser energy to accelerate fuel particles through nanostructured targets to trigger a reaction.

His Royal Highness visited the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s Joint European Torus (JET), the largest and most powerful operating tokamak machine in the world. Her Majesty The Queen officially opened JET in 1984. Almost 40 years later, experts based at UKAEA’s Culham Science Centre, Oxford, discussed with The Prince of Wales how fusion promises to be an important part of the low-carbon energy mix in the second half of this century, at the same time presenting a significant economic opportunity for Britain.