US-based start-up Focused Energy has completed a scientific report detailing its initial high-gain target design based on direct-drive laser inertial fusion. This is the first milestone in the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Milestone-based Fusion Development Program. DOE announced in May 2023 that eight fusion companies had been selected to share $46m to advance designs and research and development for fusion power plants. The aim was that “within five to 10 years, the eight awardees will resolve scientific and technological challenges to create designs for a fusion pilot plant that will help bring fusion to both technical and commercial viability”.
Focused Energy was founded in 2021 to commercialise fusion as a technology spin-off from Germany’s University of Darmstadt & and Texas-based National Energetics, which reportedly will eventually become part of Focused Energy. Its approach is based on using a focused proton beam to ignite millimetre-scale sphere deuterium/tritium fuel targets to create fusion reactions. It says this builds on the work achieved by the National Ignition Facility laser at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
The first of its milestones was the completed design report. The second was the completion of an experiment at the Laboratory for Advanced Laser for Extreme Photonics at Colorado State University to measure and optimise laser-generated proton focusing. It also tested the ability to produce and align targets at high repetition rates using its in-house target laboratory.
Focused Energy CEO Scott Mercer said its team of scientists had “taken a meaningful step toward answering the design and engineering questions needed to improve gain and develop a workable design for fusion fuel targets. With continued support from the Department of Energy, we look forward to helping bring fusion to commercial viability.”
The other seven companies in the DOE programme are: Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Princeton Stellarators, Realta Fusion, Tokamak Energy, Type One Energy Group, Xcimer Energy and Zap Energy.
In 2022, Focused Energy received $15m in early-stage funding from the venture capital firm Prime Movers Lab, plus Marc Lore, tech investor Tony Florence, and the former Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez. Focused Energy said then that it aimed to prove out its fusion process with an ignition facility by 2030, that would cost $3bn to build. The $15m would be spent on a laser system at University of Texas at Austin and to build out experimental facilities in Darmstadt, Germany.
