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Nuclear fusion's levitated dipole dark horse emerges from New Zealand

As of May 2026: Transitioning from Junior prototype to next-generation Tahi device

For the first time, a commercial company has confined plasma in a levitated dipole reactor — using a single half-tonne superconducting magnet floating freely in a vacuum chamber, held aloft only by magnetic force. Superheated gas swirls around it at over one million degrees Celsius. On February 17, 2026, Wellington-based OpenStar Technologies publicly demonstrated this feat in its five-meter-wide "Junior" prototype, with New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon triggering the final stage of the experiment.

Updated May 30