In a new white paper, First Light Fusion (FLF), spun out from the University of Oxford in 2011, describes the first commercially viable, reactor-compatible pathway for high gain inertial fusion. Gain is when more energy is converted from the reaction than the energy delivered to the fuel. It has long been the missing link to full-scale commercial fusion. The new approach is called FLARE – Fusion via Low-power Assembly and Rapid Excitation.
While the conventional inertial fusion energy (IFE) approach is to compress and heat the fuel at the same time to achieve ignition, FLARE splits this process into two. First it compresses the fuel in a controlled and highly efficient manner. Then, using a separate process to ignite the compressed fuel, it generates a massive surplus of energy, a concept known as “fast ignition”. Though this has long been researched, it is now made practical for the first time using First Light’s unique amplification technology.
FLARE leverages over 14 years of FLF’s inertial fusion experience and their unique controlled-amplification technology, to create a system capable of reaching the high gain levels needed for cost competitive energy production. This new approach could underpin the design for commercial reactors based on much lower power systems that already exist today. FLF says this opens up an opportunity for partners to build those systems, using FLF’s technology as the fuel, and to roll it out worldwide.
Gain has long been the missing link to full-scale commercial fusion. The current record gain level stands at 4, achieved at the US Department of Energy’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) in May. The FLARE concept, detailed in the white paper, could produce an energy gain of up to 1,000. FLF’s economic modelling suggests that a gain of at least 200 is needed for fusion energy to be commercially competitive, while a gain of 1,000 would enable very low-cost power.
The FLARE model offers a cheaper development pathway and drives down the expected cost of a fusion power plant: an experimental gain scale facility is expected to cost 1/20th of NIF (the only facility that has achieved gain globally) and could be built using existing, proven technologies. Due to the lower energy and power requirements provided by the FLARE technology, future commercial power plants would have significantly lower capital costs than other plausible IFE schemes, with lower complexity and core components such as the energy delivery system costing 1/10th of the capital cost of previous fast ignition schemes. The lower pulse rate (enabled by the high gain) could also lower operating costs. Since a pulsed system plant can adjust its output, it can also provide flexible, low-cost electricity to support modern grids which utilise a high level of intermittent renewables.
FLF’s new FLARE approach has received strong backing from prominent plasma physicists, including Jeremy Chittenden, Professor of Plasma Physics and co-director of the Centre for Inertial Fusion Studies at Imperial College London.
FLF CEO Mark Thomas said: “This is a pivotal moment not just for First Light, but for the future of energy. With the FLARE approach, we’ve laid out the world’s first commercially viable, reactor-compatible pathway to high gain inertial fusion – and it’s grounded in real science, proven technologies, and practical engineering. A pathway to a gain of 1,000 puts us well beyond the threshold where fusion becomes economically transformative. Through our approach, we’re opening the door to a new industrial sector – and we want to bring others with us.”
Lord David Willetts FRS, former Science minister and Chair of the Foundation for Science and Technology, said: “Fusion has often been dismissed as always 30 years away. That cliche fails to recognise how much real progress is being made, especially here in Britain. First Light Fusion has now shown a credible pathway to viable commercial fusion. The challenge now is to ensure the UK leads the rapid development of this technology.”
FLF says a commercial demonstration is potentially possible by mid-2030s using a $100-$200m facility. By comparison ITER aims for first plasma 2034 and commercial power decades later. NIF in the US cost $5.3bn including upgrades. STEP, the UK government’s flagship fusion programme, targets a prototype plant by 2040.
