Reactor experiment demonstrates alternative fusion scheme

Bring the power of the sun down to earth! 

Remember: "That's one small step for [transgender] man, one giant leap for mankind." (Source) (Caution: Politically incorrect language! (Caution: Irony))

What many scientists working on some of the largest experimental devices ever built could not achieve in several decades, perhaps private companies and entrepreneurs will accomplish to generate viable nuclear fusion power.

"Researchers in Japan have demonstrated reactions, for the first time in a fusion reactor, with a type of fuel that is plentiful and doesn’t produce damaging particles. Although the reactions were nowhere close to achieving net energy and required even higher temperatures than standard fusion fuel, the result is a proof of principle for private fusion startup TAE Technologies, which argues that its path to a practical power plant faces fewer engineering roadblocks than conventional approaches.
The results show how the alternative fuel, a mix of protons and the element boron, “has a place in utility-scale fusion power,” TAE CEO Michl Binderbauer said in a statement. ...
TAE is following a different recipe: fusing hydrogen nuclei—protons—with easily mined boron. The reaction generates no neutrons and produces only harmless helium, but it requires temperatures of about 3 billion degrees Celsius—200 times the heat of the Sun’s core and 30 times hotter than what’s needed to fuse D-T. Researchers have already shown they can fuse protons and boron by using particle beams aimed at a solid target or by blasting plasma with lasers. Now, a team has done it—on a small scale, at least—using a conventional fusion reactor, called the Large Helical Device (LHD), at Japan’s National Institute for Fusion Science. The group reported its work last week in Nature Communications. ...
In a few years, TAE says it will finish building a successor, called Copernicus, which is intended to reach 100 million degrees Celsius—the temperature needed for conventional D-T fusion. By next decade, the company wants to build an even more powerful machine—Da Vinci—that could take it close to proton-boron temperatures. ..."

From the abstract:

"Proton-boron (p11B) fusion is an attractive potential energy source but technically challenging to implement. Developing techniques to realize its potential requires first developing the experimental capability to produce p11B fusion in the magnetically-confined, thermonuclear plasma environment. Here we report clear experimental measurements supported by simulation of p11B fusion with high-energy neutral beams and boron powder injection in a high-temperature fusion plasma (the Large Helical Device) that have resulted in diagnostically significant levels of alpha particle emission. The injection of boron powder into the plasma edge results in boron accumulation in the core. Three 2 MW, 160 kV hydrogen neutral beam injectors create a large population of well-confined, high -energy protons to react with the boron plasma. The fusion products, MeV alpha particles, are measured with a custom designed particle detector which gives a fusion rate in very good relative agreement with calculations of the global rate. This is the first such realization of p11B fusion in a magnetically confined plasma."

From the TAE Technologies company's website:

"A company on a mission.

TAE was founded in 1998 to develop the ultimate clean energy solution: a commercial fusion power source that is compact, cost-effective, capable of sustaining the planet for centuries, and safe in every way."

Reactor experiment demonstrates alternative fusion scheme | Science | AAAS Startup says result highlights value of plentiful proton-boron fuel

First measurements of p11B fusion in a magnetically confined plasma (open access, I presume this is the article the AAAS mentioned in the above article without proper citation)

Researchers say trillions of proton-boron fusion reactions occurred every second within the twisted intestines of Japan’s Large Helical Device.