German startup aims to create laser fusion

Nuclear fusion is the energy that powers stars. If it can be renewable on Earth, it has near limitless energy potential with zero carbon emissions – and unlike nuclear fission, powers nuclear plants. Today, fusion does not leave radioactive nuclear waste for long.

The technology seems to have just been out of reach for decades now, but the rewards are so high that billions of dollars are still pouring into the space. On WednesdayThe Biden White House announced a vision for boosting fusion investment, noting that trade fusion “has the potential to revolutionize the energy industry.”

Marvel Fusion, founded in 2019, is one of many startups betting on the commercialization of fusion. The German company is pursuing an innovative approach using lasers instead of magnets and has so far raised 60 million euros ($65.9 million), including a round of 35 million euros (38 million euros). ,5 million dollars) in February due Earlybird Venture Capital.

There are still years – and billions of dollars – to even build a prototype, but the company is testing the idea using computer models and believes its approach will work better. competitive efforts.

There are two “religions” in the context of entrepreneurship in general, Edward Morsea professor of nuclear engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, told CNBC: magnetic confinement and inertial confinement.

Magnetic confinement typically uses a tokamak, a donut-shaped machine with very strong magnets to keep the plasma intact so fusion can occur. This is a breed that has been more battle-tested, with a number of startups and international collaborative efforts in France all pursuing it.

Inertial confinement fusion is when compressed very strongly and so quickly that it achieves the necessary conditions for fusion. In reality, laser is used for fuel compression.

“The Tokamak concept based on magnetic confinement is the most advanced fusion device,” said Sehila M. Gonzalez de Vicente, a nuclear fusion physicist at the International Atomic Energy Agencytold CNBC.

“However, laser-based concepts also represent a promising approach,” she said.

Marvel Fusion is not the only startup in the field of working with lasers. For example, HB11, EX-Fusionand Concentrated energy Holland told CNBC that other fusion startups are also members of the Consolidated Industry Association and are also working on lasers.

In August, scientists took a significant step forward in laser fusion science in August at the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. In what a top scientist there called “The Wright Brothers Moment” for the industrya laser light is focused on a target the size of BB, producing an enormous amount of energy.

Moritz von der Lindena co-founder and CEO at Marvel Fusion, says direct drive is more efficient.

“We need significantly less energy to ignite and ignite the fuel than comparable high-temperature fusion models,” he told CNBC.

Before founding Marvel, Linden spent 20 years working in finance and technology. In her previous work, Linden teamed up with a physicist to conduct due diligence on another fusion company, and the two determined that the launch they were evaluating was not viable. But that investigation inspired Linden and Karl-Georg Schlesinger to co-found Marvel Fusion.

Marvel Fusion’s fusion technology relies on extremely advanced lasers, and he claims the technology’s state-of-the-art is 20 years ahead of NIF’s lasers, which began the planning process decades ago. prior to.

Marvel Fusion also plans to use hydrogen-bo 11 as a fuel source, resulting in even less waste than the deuterium-tritium fuel used in many conventional fusion reactions. In the primary reaction, the helium nucleus will be the only byproduct. In 0.1% of all reactions, a “small number” of fast neutrons, which cause radioactive waste, are produced, but this is not enough to produce any residual radioactive waste. long term, Marvel Fusion said. (HB11, another fusion start-upare also pursuing this approach.)

Marvel Fusion is still in its early days and doesn’t have much more than a computer simulation — the money raised so far isn’t enough to build even a prototype, Linden told CNBC, “not a process.” long process.” That would cost billions of dollars, and the goal is to have a physical facility within five to six years and a prototype power plant within a decade.

Morse, a Berkeley professor, cautions that it’s too early to say whether the startup will succeed.

“Like most startups, they believe in their own miracles,” Morse told CNBC. “It’s something people like VC money – something radical enough, it can work. It can make them 100 times their money. But the truth is, they’ve got their hands on 99. another vase… So someone’s going to have a bright idea. The other 99 won’t.”