US 12,033,763 B2
Liquid sandwich vacuum vessel for magnetic fusion
Jeffrey Freidberg, Belmont, MA (US); Sara Ferry, Chelsea, MA (US); Dennis G. Whyte, Brookline, MA (US); Caroline Sorensen, Belmont, MA (US); and Ethan Peterson, Cambridge, MA (US)
Assigned to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (US)
Filed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (US)
Filed on Mar. 3, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/190,755.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/985,578, filed on Mar. 5, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2021/0280327 A1, Sep. 9, 2021
Int. Cl. G21B 1/17 (2006.01); G21B 1/13 (2006.01); G21B 1/05 (2006.01)
CPC G21B 1/17 (2013.01) [G21B 1/13 (2013.01); G21B 1/057 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A vessel for containing a plasma undergoing thermonuclear fusion within a reaction volume, the vessel comprising:
a rigid, inner structural member enclosing the reaction volume;
a rigid, outer structural member enclosing, and rigidly coupled to, the inner structural member, wherein the rigid inner and outer structural members alone form a sealed, double-walled shell enclosing an interior volume that is separated from the reaction volume by the rigid, inner structural member; and
a non-structural material fully captured in the separated, interior volume between the inner and outer structural members, the non-structural material being solid at room temperature and being molten during thermonuclear fusion of the plasma.