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The secret U.S.-Russian nuclear fusion project

By Mark Halper | May 6, 2013, 6:24 AM PDT

Electricity machine. An artist’s rendition of two Tri-Alpha fusion reactors that would generate electricity directly without requiring a turbine. These two would have a combined output of 100 megawatts, less than a tenth of a conventional nuclear station but physically much smaller (for scale, note the person in the front right side), and suitable for local power provision. (Click on sketch to enlarge).

A small California nuclear fusion company, well known for being secretive, has landed backing from the Russian government.

Rusnano Group, a state-owned venture firm, invested an undisclosed amount in Tri-Alpha Energy, Forbes reported earlier this year.

Nuclear fusion is the elusive Holy Grail of energy. It fuses atoms together rather than splits them apart as today’s nuclear fission does. Proponents say that fusion portends limitless, safe, environmentally-friendly energy. Scientists have been working on it since the 1950s, but it has always remained 40 years or more away. The fundamental problem is that it takes more energy to run fusion than what fusion can deliver.

The Russian investment is the latest round of financing for Tri-Alpha which, prior to the Rusnano backing, is believed to have raised over $140 million from Goldman Sachs, venture capital firms including Venrock, Vulcan Capital and New Eneterprise Associates, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, and others, as I reported in my Kachan & Co. study on alternative nuclear technologies in late 2011.

Forbes adds that Tri-Alpha’s investors include Hollywood actor Harry Hamlin and astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Tri-Alpha is based in Foothill Ranch, Calif, near Irvine.

The company reveals little about itself and does not have a website. It is working on a form of fusion called “aneutronic,” which delivers electricity straight from the fusion process without the use of a turbine. Most fusion projects call for creating heat that drives a turbine that generates electricity, as does fission.

Another U.S. company, Lawrenceville Plasma Physics is also developing aneutronic fusion, collaborating with physicists from Iran. Aneutronic fusion tends to use different atoms - hydrogen and boron - than does “conventional” fusion, which uses two isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium.

Other companies developing fusion reactors include Lockheed Martin, General Fusion, Burnaby, Canada (which has venture backing from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos as well as from the oil industry) and Helion Energy which has a design called a Fusion Engine that furnishes electricity both via turbines and directly (although Helion does not call its process “aneutronic”).

Helion is connected to MSNW, the company that is also developing a different fusion machine intended to propel spacecraft.

Many fusion watchers believe that one of these private projects, operating under commercial pressure, will crack fusion before any of the large inter-governmental projects do. Those include ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) in France and NIF (National Ignition Facility) in Livermore, Calif.

Sketch from Tri-Alpha powerpoint presentation.

Watch for my upcoming post on the similar challenges facing fusion and fission development.

Pursuing fusion, on SmartPlanet:

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About Mark Halper

Mark Halper is a contributing editor for SmartPlanet.

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Impressive

I'm always amazed at the depth of knowledge of some of the participants to the smartplanet discussions.

Posted by dcr100@...

7th May

Just
In

Not so huge challenge

"It was a surprise when we used hydrogen-boron instead of deuterium-tritium," says Hora. "It was not 100,000 times more difficult to ignite, as it would be under the usual compression process. It... Read Whole Comment +

Posted by rbrtwjohnson

8th May

Show:

+2Votes

Net positive aneutronic fusion is a huge challenge

As this type of system is operating outside of thermodynamic equilibrium with a massive fuel (boron-11), the bremsstrahlung losses are expected to be very high. This would likely require an x-ray capture scheme employing scintillators and PVs tuned to the expected energies (see: x-ray space telescopes like Chandra) to approach break-even. What percentage of the x-ray emissions can be ultimately captured? More than 10%? Is this likely? Outside of my understanding, so I await responses from those more knowledgeable.

Todd Rider's work set a very high level of skepticism for these types of approaches to fusion.

Posted by cbarcus

Updated - 6th May

+1Vote

But not impossible after all

Todd Rider wrote his thesis in 1994, almost 20 years ago, so it is outdated and currently misleading because it has been recently found that p-B11 fusion would be, not a thousand, but only ten times harder than D-T.
"It was very surprising, is that the reaction of hydrogen and the boron isotope 11 (HB11) is less than ten times only more difficult than the DT fusion."
http://ocs.ciemat.es/EPS2011PAP/pdf/P5.037.pdf#page=4

However the break-even still depends on high density and high fusion rate:
Presuming a typical thermoelectric efficiency around 30%,
and considering all energy, including Bremsstrahlung radiation, will end as waste heat.
p + B11 + 123keV -> 3(He4) + 8.68MeV
raw gain is around 70 (8.68MeV/123keV)
Hence it will be needed a fusion rate 1/30, i.e., 29 scatterings and at least one successful fusion event to become self-sustainable. (30/(29+70)) 30%
http://www.crossfirefusion.com/reactor

Posted by rbrtwjohnson

6th May

+1Vote

Not so huge challenge

Posted by rbrtwjohnson

8th May

+2Votes

Impressive

I'm always amazed at the depth of knowledge of some of the participants to the smartplanet discussions.

Posted by dcr100@...

7th May

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The secret U.S.-Russian nuclear fusion project