When forced to work with’shoestring funding’, academic excellence is not enough
Nick Hawker immediately understood the significance of this news when he heard that US scientists had once again successfully produced energy by fusing together two atoms.
First Light Fusion’s founder and CEO, Mr. David First, says that the successful experiment was a “real physics milestone”.
for the second time in 7 months Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility, in California, has generated more energy than required to trigger a reaction. This is a significant milestone.
The second experiment showed that the breakthrough could be repeated. The Holy Grail of clean, commercial energy, commercial nuclear fusion is now closer than ever.
The breakthrough has also shown how far ahead the US is – and that it could leave British start ups like Oxford based First Light behind.
Washington has provided funding in the amount of $3.5bn for the National Ignition Facility, the laboratory that made the breakthrough.
The UK’s contribution to the Programme for Spherical Tokamak Energy Production (STEP), an equivalent fusion laboratory, is only £220m.
In addition, the Inflation Reduction Act of President Joe Biden last year included $1.5bn in funding for green energy research, including fusion.
Since Boris Johnson left Downing Street, the fusion strategy that Britain had developed in 2021 has been forgotten.
Some fear that the US could become a global hub for fusion financing, stealing investment from other ventures around the globe.
Warrick Matthews of Tokamak Energy in Britain says that it’s easier to raise capital in America than in the UK.
British companies now race to show the effectiveness of their fusion technologies to attract investors as soon as possible.
Nuclear fusion, if it is scaled up, could be the key to the shift of energy in our world towards cleaner sources. Helium gas is the only by-product of this reaction, aside from energy.
Fusion occurs when deuterium (two types of hydrogen) and tritium (two types of hydrogen with extra neutrons) are heated at millions of degrees until they fuse. Helium is released and a lot of energy.
In the US, the latest breakthrough involves what’s known as ignition. This is where more energy from fusion is produced than is needed to start the reaction.
Scientists at the California-based Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory were able to extract even more energy from the process during an experiment conducted last month.
According to reports, the equivalent of one kilowatt-hour was delivered by the reaction. This is enough power to run an oven for a half-hour.
The US scientists are believed to have ignited the fuel for the fourth time, a feat that raises hopes of bringing this energy source onto the grid, at a moment when reliable, carbon-free electricity has never been in greater demand.
The US Department of Energy described it as “a major breakthrough in science that has been decades in the making, which will pave way for advances in national defence and the future of cleaner power”.
Inertial confinement and magnetism are the two main approaches to trigger fusion.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory made a breakthrough using the inertial containment method.
First Light also uses this method. Hawker warns, however, that businesses like his struggle with a hand tied behind theirbacks due to a lack support from the government and industry.
In this country, we have a great deal of academic excellence when it comes to inertial-fusion. “We don’t have any large facilities, no big projects or coordinated efforts,” he said.
All of our academic partners live on a shoestring budget. “I think that there should be more funding available for inertial Fusion”
Return on investment can be huge.
Hawker believes that by 2050, the world could want 10,000 fusion reactors.
How much clean energy could the world afford? “As far as I am concerned, the answer is as much clean power as it is physically possible to create.”
First Light developed a way to trigger inertial-fusion by using a gas gun 22 metres long that fires 100g projectiles at 6.5km/second, which is about 20 times faster than the sound speed. The pellet contains tritium and d-deuterium.
He wants to build power plants that can repeat the process in 30 seconds. Each pellet would generate enough energy to power the average UK house for over two years.
Hawker cites the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as an example: “The last step is the same in both our process and this process.” This gives us enormous confidence that we are on the right path, since the core physics of both processes is the same.
First Light is building its own demonstration ignition to show investors.
He plans to build a commercial plant at the end of this decade, offering energy for as low as $45 per Megawatt Hour. This is similar to the timeframes used by his competitors.
To capture the market, start-ups such as his require continued support in developing the technology.
Magnetic-driven fusion is the most popular alternative method of fusion used by British start-ups.
Hawker: “I do not think that we should reduce the importance of magnetic fusion.” “But if the funding is 100 to 1 at the moment, we could add nine or 20 more dollars to make it even.”
Tokamak Energy is also located in Oxford and focuses on magnetic fusion.
Matthews, the managing director of the company, says that there is a certain amount of competition. Investors will want to see a certain level of competition.
The device, developed by the company and backed both by the US government and the UK government, reached 100 million degrees Celsius last year, the threshold to sustain fusion. He argues that breakthroughs such as reaching this high threshold temperature mean “the UK has a leading position in the grid at the moment.”
Matthews says that continued investment is essential to prevent Britain from falling behind its international competitors.
We all know that it is easy to be overtaken by competitors if you do not continue to invest.
Scientists have pointed out the US’s Inflation Reduction Act, as well as the Department for Energy budget of $149bn last year.
The cost of developing technology is also expensive.
Mathews says, “Fusion is hard.” When you talk about controlling plasma that is over 100 million degrees hot, the majority of people will understand that it’s a pretty difficult task.
While recent ignition breakthroughs in the US have been hugely important in the quest for commercial Fusion, everyone agrees that there is still a long way to go.
Hawker replies: “It is like lighting a fire.” Now that you’ve lit your kindling, it’s time to build the rest.
A spokesperson for the government said: “The UK is aiming to be the leader in the world when it comes to the commercialisation and use of fusion technologies. We are investing more than £700m over the next 3 years in research programs and facilities.”
This is in addition to the UK Fusion Strategy and regulatory Framework, which applies to all technological approaches towards fusion.