Fusion power startup Inertia Enterprises announced on Tuesday that it has formed three partnerships with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to commercialise the laser-driven fusion reactor technology developed at the esteemed Californian facility.
These agreements could position Inertia ahead of its competitors in the burgeoning fusion energy sector. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at LLNL has, to date, been the only site to successfully demonstrate that controlled fusion can yield more energy than is consumed during the ignition process. Since its emergence earlier this year, Inertia has secured substantial funding, with a $450 million Series A round, making it one of the most financially robust startups in the field.
Inertia, in collaboration with LLNL, is focused on inertial confinement fusion, a method that compresses a fuel pellet using an external force, contrasting with alternative methods that utilise powerful magnetic fields to confine plasma until fusion occurs. At NIF, an array of 192 laser beams are directed into a vacuum chamber to converge on a small gold cylinder, known as a hohlraum, which houses a diamond-coated fuel pellet. The intense laser energy vaporises the hohlraum, generating X-rays that compress the tiny fuel pellet, turning the diamond into plasma and compacting the deuterium-tritium fuel for fusion.
This intricate process requires rapid succession, with the goal of making it viable for power generation on a grid scale. Though the laser fusion concept was initially posited in the 1960s for nuclear weapon research, it soon garnered attention for its potential as a clean energy source. Construction of the NIF began in 1997, culminating in 25 years of development before achieving breakeven, where the fusion reaction outputs more energy than is necessary for ignition.
Several startups, including Inertia, Xcimer, Focused Energy, and First Light, are now aiming to translate this breakthrough into commercial power plants. There is optimism that advancements in laser technology could enhance efficiency, thereby reducing the energy required for initiating fusion reactions, which is crucial for making a viable commercial power plant.
The agreements inked between Inertia and LLNL include two key partnership initiatives and a cooperative research and development agreement, focused on advancing laser technology and enhancing fuel target performance and manufacturing processes. Additionally, Inertia has secured licensing for almost 200 patents from LLNL.
Annie Kritcher, Inertia’s co-founder and chief scientist, played a pivotal role in developing the successful NIF experiment that achieved scientific breakeven, making the continued collaboration between Inertia and LLNL a natural progression. The passage of the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act enabled Kritcher to establish the company while maintaining her position at LLNL, marking a significant step towards commercialising fusion energy.
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