Fusion power
Electricity generation through nuclear fusion
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We include updates on Hydrogen, Boron, Tritium, Deuterium, Helium-3, Helion Energy, Lithium hydride, Polywell, Inertial electrostatic confinement, Plasma-facing material, Cadarache, Zap Energy, Thea Energy, Antimatter-catalyzed nuclear pulse propulsion, Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Large Helical Device ... and more.
| 2025 | The Copernicus device is expected to attain net energy gain, with an approximate reactor cost of $200 million and planned operating temperatures of around 100 million°C for deuterium-tritium fusion validation. |
| 2024 | Helion projects achieving fusion breakeven, with their prototype now having a 10 tesla magnetic field. |
| 2024 | Projected completion of Project Polaris, Helion Energy's seventh prototype, which is designed to be 25% larger than the previous Trenta model and capable of generating plasma pulses at a dramatically increased rate of one pulse per second for short periods. |
| 2023 | TAE Technologies published a peer-reviewed paper reporting the first measurement of p-11B fusion in magnetically confined plasma at the LHD in Japan. |
| 2023 | Became a finalist for the GeekWire Best Workplaces of the Year. |
| 2023 | Received an additional United States Department of Energy INFUSE award, continuing support for the company's innovative fusion research. |
| 2023 |
Commercial fusion
CTFusion Inc ceased trading.
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| 2023 |
Commercial fusion
CTFusion Inc ceased trading. Proxima Fusion was founded.
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| May 2023 | Selected as one of eight companies for the United States Department of Energy Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program. |
| May 10 2023 | Announced Microsoft as their first customer, with a commitment to provide fusion power to Microsoft starting in 2028. |
| 2022 |
Helium-3
Helion Energy announced their 7th fusion prototype (Polaris) aims to demonstrate net electricity from fusion and helium-3 production through deuterium-deuterium fusion using a patented high-efficiency closed-fuel cycle.
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| 2022 | Initiated design of Ursa Major (8th prototype), expected to be twice the size of Polaris. |
| 2022 | TAE Technologies planned to start construction of the Copernicus device, a hydrogen-powered fusion reactor project. |
| 2022 | Initiated design of the 8th prototype. |
| 2022 | Selected as one of five finalists for the GeekWire Awards in the fusion energy startup innovation category. |
| 2022 | Thea Energy was founded as a spin-out company from the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), initially operating under the name Princeton Stellarators, Inc (PSI). |
| 2022 | Received two United States Department of Energy INFUSE awards. |
| 2022 |
Commercial fusion
Another wave of fusion company foundations, with Blue Laser Fusion, Gauss Fusion, General Atomics Fusion Division, LaserFusionX, Realta Fusion, Stellarex, Thea Energy, and Xcimer Energy entering the market.
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| December 5 2022 |
Burning plasma
NIF achieved a scientific energy gain above one, demonstrating a breakthrough in fusion energy research by producing more energy from fusion reactions than was input into the experiment.
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| 2021 | TAE Technologies reported raising its total investment to around $880 million. |
| 2021 | TAE Technologies announced a joint three-year research project with Japan's Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS) to study the effects of hydrogen-boron fuel reactions in the NIFS Large Helical Device (LHD). |
| 2021 | Helion Energy began development of its seventh-generation prototype, Project Polaris, aiming to significantly improve fusion plasma technology with increased pulse rates and higher temperature capabilities. |
| 2021 | Helion Energy was valued at three billion dollars, with total investment reaching $77.8 million by late 2021. |
| 2021 | Helion Energy announced its sixth prototype, 'Trenta', completed a 16-month test cycle with over 10,000 pulses, reaching 100 million degrees Celsius - the minimum temperature for a potential commercial nuclear fusion generator. The prototype demonstrated significant achievements including magnetic compression fields exceeding 10 Tesla, ion temperatures over 8 keV, and electron temperatures over 1 keV. |
| 2021 |
Commercial fusion
Crossfield Fusion Ltd canceled their reactor development.
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| 2021 |
Commercial fusion
A significant surge in fusion startup companies occurred, including Blue Laser Fusion, Energy Singularity Fusion Power Technology, EX-Fusion, Focused Energy, Helical Fusion, HB11 Energy, Longview Fusion Energy Systems, and Renaissance Fusion.
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| November 2021 | Helion Energy received $500 million in Series E funding, with an additional $1.7 billion in milestone-based commitments, primarily led by Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI and executive chairman of Helion. |
| September 2021 | TAE Technologies established a new division called Power Solutions to commercialize power management systems developed from the C-2W/Norman reactor, targeting electric vehicle, charging infrastructure, and energy storage markets. David Roberts was appointed as the CEO of this new division. |
| August 8 2021 |
Burning plasma
NIF achieved a fully ignited plasma, marking a significant milestone in fusion research.
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| 2020 |
Burning plasma
The National Ignition Facility successfully achieved a burning plasma in a laboratory setting, marking a significant milestone in plasma physics research by demonstrating a plasma primarily heated by fusion reactions.
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| 2020 | Helion became the first private company to successfully demonstrate thermonuclear fusion plasmas exceeding 9 keV, achieving expected deuterium-deuterium fusion reactions and neutrons, with a triple product greater than 1 × 10^20 keV·s/m3, meeting the Lawson criterion. |
| 2020 |
Commercial fusion
Electric Fusion Systems, Inc. founded, developing Rydberg matter fuel-based fusion with proton–lithium7 fuel.
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| 2019 |
Commercial fusion
Several fusion companies emerged, such as Crossfield Fusion Ltd, Fuse, Kyoto Fusioneering, and Type One Energy Group.
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| 2019 |
Commercial fusion
Fusion Power Corporation was dissolved.
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| April 2019 | Helion Energy was criticized by retired Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory researcher Daniel Jassby in the American Physical Society newsletter Physics & Society, who accused the company of practicing 'voodoo fusion'. |
| 2018 | TAE Technologies partnered with Google's Applied Science team to develop Norman technology and maximize electron temperature, with the goal of demonstrating breakeven fusion. |
| 2018 |
Commercial fusion
Multiple commercial fusion companies were founded, including Avalanche Energy, Commonwealth Fusion Systems, ENN Energy, and HelicitySpace Corporation.
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| October 2018 | Helion Energy presented a detailed report on D–D fusion experiments producing neutrons at the U.S. Department of Energy's ARPA-E annual ALPHA program meeting. The company's 5th prototype 'Venti' demonstrated magnetic fields of 7T and achieved plasmas with multi-keV temperatures and a triple product of 6.4 × 10^18 keV·s/m3. |
| July 2018 | Michl Binderbauer transitions from CTO to CEO after Steven Specker's retirement, continuing the company's leadership. |
| March 2018 | TAE Technologies raised $40 million to create TAE Life Sciences, a subsidiary focused on boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) for cancer treatment. The funding was led by ARTIS Ventures, and the subsidiary partnered with Neuboron Medtech to install their beam system. |
| February 2018 | After 4,000 experiments, TAE Technologies reached a high temperature of nearly 20 million degrees Celsius with the Norman reactor. |
| 2017 | Using a machine learning tool developed with Google and the 'Optometrist Algorithm', TAE Technologies achieved significant improvements in plasma containment and stability over the previous C-2U machine. The study's results were published in Scientific Reports. |
| 2017 | TAE Technologies renamed the C-2W reactor to 'Norman' in honor of company co-founder Norman Rostoker, who passed away in 2014. |
| 2017 |
Commercial fusion
Multiple fusion companies were founded, including HB11 Energy (non-thermal laser fusion), Zap Energy (magnetic confinement pinch), and Norront Fusion Energy (muon-catalyzed fusion).
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| November 2017 | TAE Technologies was admitted to the US Department of Energy's 'Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment' program, gaining access to the Cray XC40 supercomputer. |
| July 2017 | The Norman reactor achieved plasma, capable of operating at temperatures between 50-70 million degrees Celsius. |
| May 2017 | Ernest Moniz, former United States Secretary of Energy, joins TAE Technologies' board of directors. |
| October 2016 | Steven Specker becomes CEO of TAE Technologies, succeeding the previous leadership. |
| 2015 |
Helium-3
Dwayne Day wrote in The Space Review criticizing helium-3 extraction from the Moon as 'magical thinking' about an unproven technology.
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| 2015 | Awarded an ARPA-E ALPHA contract for 'Staged Magnetic Compression of FRC Targets to Fusion Conditions'. |
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This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles Helion Energy, Commercial fusion, Burning plasma, Thea Energy, Helium-3 & TAE Technologies, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.