UK company seeks to build pulsed fusion machine

16 March 2018


UK-based First Light Fusion (FLF) is investing £3.6m ($5m) to build a pulsed power machine (Machine 3) to advance exploring nuclear fusion technology. 

Machine 3 is under construction and scheduled for commissioning by the end of 2018. It will be the only pulsed power machine of its scale in the world dedicated to researching fusion energy, FLF said. Once complete, Machine 3 will be capable of discharging up to 200,000V and in excess of 14MA – the equivalent of nearly 500 simultaneous lightning strikes – within two microseconds. The Machine will use some 3km of high voltage cables and another 10km of diagnostic cables.

The next step in the development will be to achieve “gain”, whereby the amount of energy created exceeds that used to spark the reaction.  

First Light uses a high-velocity projectile to create a shockwave to collapse a cavity containing plasma inside a ‘target’.  The company’s approach was inspired by the only example of inertial confinement found on Earth – the pistol shrimp, which clicks its claw to produce a shockwave that stuns its prey. The only other naturally occurring inertial confinement phenomenon is a supernova. The reaction created by the collapsing cavity is what creates energy, which can then be captured and used.

Other approaches have already demonstrated fusion, including tokamaks and laser-driven inertial fusion. ITER, being built in southern France, will be the world’s largest tokamak. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) in California is the world’s most energetic laser. Both projects are also aiming to demonstrate 'gain.'

Dr Nicholas Hawker, Founder and CEO of FLF said: "Machine 3 will be a unique facility. There is nothing else like it in the world." 

He added: "The pressures and velocities that we will be able to access with this machine will massively extend the development of our fusion target designs." 

Hawker said FLF looked forward to welcoming its collaborators from the high energy density physics community to work with it on its experiments. "All of this has been achieved at a drastically reduced cost when compared with other alternative technology choices," Hawker said.

FLF Ltd was set up from the University of Oxford in July 2011, with seed capital from the IP Group plc, Parkwalk Advisors Ltd and some Angel investors. The company was named Oxyntix Ltd until May 2014. 
 



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