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The tokamak hall at Commonwealth Fusion Systems’ fusion energy facility in Devens, Massachusetts, will house the company’s SPARC reactor. Credit: Commonwealth Fusion Systems

How Advanced Materials Could Unleash Fusion Energy

by Prachi Patel Materials advances in the past decade have led to key breakthroughs in fusion energy. The past five years have seen the launch of numerous start-ups and a surge of investment into the long-sought clean energy source. Whether fusion becomes viable in the next decade depends on continued materials...

Infinite Helium flow path and heat diagram. Credit: Lake Shore Cryotronics

Getting Closer to Artemis II Rocket Completion with Newest Addition

NASA has integrated the Artemis II Orion stage adapter with the rest of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket in the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Built by NASA engineers at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, the adapter connects the...

NASA Aims to Keep Fuel Cool Under Pressure with Zero Boil-Off Experiment On NG-23

Flight Engineer Joe Acaba works in the U.S. Destiny laboratory module on the International Space Station, setting up hardware for the Zero Boil-Off Tank (ZBOT) experiment. Credit: NASA Space missions rely on cryogenic fluids — extremely cold liquids like liquid hydrogen and oxygen — for both propulsion and life support...

Cryoport Opens cryogenic logistics facility near Paris

By Molly Burgesson Oct 03, 2025 Temperature-controlled supply chain solutions company Cryoport has opened a new facility in Louvres, France, with cryogenic capabilities to support the storage and transport of temperature-sensitive materials. The site was launched through subsidiary Cryoport Systems and is located near Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. It is...

Commonwealth Fusion Systems Signs PPA with Italian Energy Company Eni

By Zachary Skidmore Google-backed nuclear fusion firm Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) has signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Italian energy firm Eni for power from its ARC power plant in Chesterfield County, Virginia. In July, CFS became one of the first fusion firms to sign a PPA with a...

New Entanglement Breakthrough Links Cores of Atoms, Brings Quantum Computers Closer

Quantum entanglement — once dismissed by Albert Einstein as “spooky action at a distance” — has long captured the public imagination and puzzled even seasoned scientists. But for today’s quantum practitioners, the reality is rather more mundane: entanglement is a kind of connection between particles that is the quintessential feature...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Dewar

A dewar is a type of cryostat named after Sir James Dewar, the researcher who first developed the concept of a vacuum insulated container with silvered walls to reflect thermal radiation. Dewar was the first to liquefy hydrogen, and he created the device to store his discovery. The thermos bottle...

Stirling and Gifford-McMahon Cryocoolers

Stirling and Gifford-McMahon (GM) cryocoolers are two of the most commonly used cryocoolers in cryogenics. Both devices have a significant industrial base and operate at a wide range of temperatures and capacities. The thermodynamic cycles for both of these cryocoolers are quite similar. The Stirling cycle consists of a compressor,...

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)

A significant commercial application of cryogenics is the liquefaction, transport and storage of natural gas. Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is generally 95 percent methane with a few percent ethane and much lower concentrations of propane and butane. LNG liquefies at 111.6 K. Unlike many applications of cryogenics, the motivation for...

Latest in Cryo Central

Cryogenic Treatment of Materials

F.J. Diekman Controlled Thermal Processing, Inc. info@metal-wear.com Cryogenic Processing (also called cryogenic treatment, and incorrectly “cryogenic tempering”) is a process that uses cryogenic temperatures to modify materials to enhance their performance. Cryogenic Processing involves the slow reduction in temperature of the material to at least -300°F (-185°C) and holding the...

Cryogenics in Space

Peter Kittel University of California-Berkeley pkittel@cal.berkeley.edu Space Cryogenics is the application of cryogenics to space missions. These applications fall into two broad areas, supporting space science missions and supporting the space transportation infrastructure. Science applications: The atmosphere is opaque to much of the electro-magnetic spectrum. In space, the absence of...

Cryosurgery

Review of Cryosurgery Boris Rubinsky, PhD Hebrew University School of Science and Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Engineering 78b Ross Building Givat Ram, Jerusalem 91904 Israel rubinsky@cs.huji.ac.il as published in Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering, August 2000, Vol. 2, pp. 157-187. Abstract: Cryosurgery is a surgical technique that employs freezing...

Liquefied Natural Gas

Liquefied Natural Gas as it relates to the Field of Cryogenics John W. Bonn VJ Systems, LLC johnbonn@vjsystems-lic.com Today the world is looking for a cleaner fuel and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plays a large part in achieving this goal. LNG in a liquid form is at -162°C (-259°F) and...

Latest in Ask the Experts

Power usage: cryogenic systems vs. regular refrigerators

A recent project highlighted to me that closed cycle cryogenic cooling systems use far more electrical power to reduce temperatures by a few watts than regular refrigerators. I am sure it must be something to do with the extra difficulty of removing the heat from the liquid nitrogen or similar...

Redundancy strategies for mechanical -80C freezers

I was wondering what kind of redundancy strategies are people using for their mechanical -80C freezers? I am aware of the following. Please add if you are doing something different. 1) 1 Backup freezer for every 10 freezers – Empty and maintained at -80C at all times 2) Backup C02...

Safety guidelines for handling cryo vessels of nitrogen

I am looking for any safety guidelines for handling cryogenic vessels of nitrogen indoors and outdoors. I am especially interested in recommendations for area monitors to detect leaks, flow detection devices, etc.

Method to move components in a cryogenic environment

Does anyone know of a method with which to reliably move components in a cryogenic environment? We are interested in moving detectors in a cryogenically cooled (2K) vacuum chamber, which is contained within a larger cryostat/isolation vacuum with thermal shields. As the desired horizontal or vertical displacement is between 10...

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