Pacific Fusion finds a cheap way to make its fusion work

Fusion power’s biggest question remains unanswered: How do you make sure the initial cost of fusion isn’t higher than the price you can sell the electricity for?

Many people have ideas, but no one interferes with them. Commonwealth Fusion Systems, for example, is confident enough to be building a large controller that costs several million dollars. But the device won’t turn on until next yearleaving this question unanswered.

Some recently established companies believe that they have the opportunity to develop low-power hybrid systems, including Pacific Fusion. Today the company announced the results of several experiments it conducted at Sandia National Laboratories that it says will eliminate some of the more expensive aspects of its process. The company shared its results with TechCrunch.

Fusion Power promises to generate more electricity 24/7 and deliver it in a way familiar to today’s grid users. Most hybrid startups are looking to the early to mid-2030s to replace their first generators.

Pacific Fusion is chase route called pulser-driven inertial confinement fusion (ICF). In fact, it is the same as experiments done at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). The company compresses small fuel pellets in rapid succession, and the compression causes the atoms within the fuel to bond together and release energy.

But where NIF uses lasers to initiate suppression, Pacific Fusion aims to use large amounts of energy. This pressure creates a magnetic field that spins the oil pellet – about the size of a pencil eraser – causing it to compress in less than 100 billionths of a second.

“The faster you put it, the hotter it gets,” Keith LeChien, co-founder and CTO of Pacific Fusion, told TechCrunch.

One of the drawbacks of pulser-driven ICF is that the process requires prior operation. To create conditions in the fuel pellet hot enough to fuse, researchers have been using lasers and magnets to preheat them. “It’s just a little bit of energy that you just need to add a little bit before you can handle it,” LeChien said, on the order of 5% to 10% of total energy.

But additional lasers and magnets add complexity, cost, and maintenance requirements to the machine, making it more difficult to sell power at competitive prices.

So in Sandia’s experiment, Pacific Fusion changed the design of the cylinder that encloses the fuel pellet and changed the power output. Before the electric current that turns on the fusion, the company allows a small amount of magnetic field to pass through to the oil before compressing it, heating it up.

“We can make very subtle changes in the way this cylinder is made that allows the magnetic field to pass through or enter the oil before it is compressed,” LeChien said.

Pacific Fusion fuel is placed in a plastic target that is covered with aluminum. By changing the thickness of the aluminum, the company is able to change the way the magnets produce oil. The magazine has to be designed with precision, but nothing crazy, LeChien said – something next to what is needed for a .22 caliber bullet. “This is a process that has been designed and developed and refined for 100 plus years,” he added.

The tweaks don’t significantly change the amount of power the Pacific Fusion has to deliver to the target. “It doesn’t take much energy to allow the magnetic field to stay in the middle of the oil,” he said. “It’s a tiny fraction, less than 1%. It’s a very, very small fraction of all the energy in the system, so it’s undetectable.”

Eliminating the magnetic field would simplify the system and its maintenance requirements, which would have a minimal impact on overall cost, he said. But laser removal can reduce costs significantly. “The amount of laser (required) to heat these types of systems with a large profit is north of $100 million.”

LeChien said efforts like these also help refine the company’s efforts to ensure they match what happens in the real world. “A lot of people have taken things and said, ‘Oh, this is going to work or this is going to work,'” he said. “It’s a whole different game to take something, build it, test it, and use it.