The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced 17 awards totalling $4.6m for projects at private fusion companies in cooperation with US national laboratories and universities through the Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) programme. Each award ranges from $100,000 to $500,000 for a period of 1-2 years. INFUSE aims to accelerate fusion energy development in the private sector by reducing impediments to collaboration between business and national laboratories or universities. To date, 108 INFUSE awards have been announced over nine funding periods, beginning in 2019.
Of the 12 private fusion companies named in the latest round, three are first-time INFUSE recipients: Blue Laser Fusion (inertial fusion), ExoFusion (magnetic tokamak fusion), and Marathon Fusion (hydrogen fuel processing technology). Marathon’s INFUSE partner – the Colorado School of Mines – is also new to the INFUSE programme. The list also includes a first-time award to the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), which is not a fusion technology developer. Companies receiving more than one award were Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Focused Energy, General Atomics, and Realta Fusion.
The 17 projects include research in materials science, modelling and simulation, and enabling technologies to help private companies move toward fusion energy. The competitive, peer-reviewed selection process was managed by the INFUSE leadership team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL).
The awards involve researchers from five national laboratories and five universities to collaborate with the private companies. ORNL is participating in five projects, Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) in three, and Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in two. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and PPPL are each named in one award.
The awardees include:
Blue Laser Fusion and the California Institute of Technology – “High Energy Pulsed Laser Amplification Using Optical Enhancement Cavities.”
Commonwealth Fusion Systems and ORNL- “In situ Elemental Analysis of Fluoride Molten Salt Using Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS).”
Commonwealth Fusion Systems and ORNL – “SOLPS-Derived Separatrix Operating Space Scalings for Informing SPARC Integrated Power Exhaust Scenarios.”
EPRI and SRNL – “Building a Tritium Facility Operating Experience Body of Knowledge to Support Commercial Fusion Power Plant Safety Case Development and Licensing.”
ExoFusion and Pennsylvania State University – “Testing Novel Liquid Metal PFC Compositions.”
Focused Energy and SRNL – “Tritium Handling System Assessment for Proton Fast Ignition.”
Focused Energy and University of Rochester – “Mitigation of Cross Beam Energy Transfer and Hot Electrons by Laser Spectral Bandwidth.”
General Atomics and INL – “Metal ‘Film’ Pump for Direct Internal Recycling of Fusion Fuel.”
General Atomics and ORNL – “Developing Matter Injection Technologies for Fusion Power Applications.”
Kyoto Fusioneering America and INL – “Isotopic Characterisation of Li-6-enriched Lithium-Lead Samples under Neutron Irradiation.”
Marathon Fusion and Colorado School of Mines – “Testing of Engineered Membranes in Fusion-Relevant Metal Foil Pumps.”
Realta Fusion and LBNL – “Efficient Neutral Beam Injection for Mirror Fusion Reactors.”
Realta Fusion and ORNL – “Are Magnetohydrodynamic Forces Low Enough to Enable Single Coolant Lead Lithium Blankets in Tandem Mirror Reactors?”
TAE Technologies and PPPL – “Validation of Kinetic Models of FRC Stability against C-2W Experiment.”
Tokamak Energy and ORNL – “Development of Advanced, Oxidation-Resistant Vanadium Alloys for Fusion Blanket Applications.”
Type One Energy and Florida State University – “High Temperature Superconducting Cable Testing and Optimisation for Stellarator Fusion Applications.”
Xcimer Energy and SRNL – “Tritium Extraction from FLiBe Blankets Using the CoRExt Process.”
