Sci-Tech: Helion Energy aiming for commercial fusion power by 2020

Helion Energy, a spin-off company from John Slough‘s plasma physics group at the University of Washington, has become very confident after building and operating several prototypes that their fusion design will lead to a low cost operational commercial nuclear fusion reactor within six years:

Here’s a cartoon diagram of their process:

FusionEngine-V8-01_600[1]

 

Note that their system produces electricity by direct conversion, not by heating up a fluid and then using the fluid to run a generator. Direct conversion is the more efficient approach.

Also, the  D-He3 fusion reaction does not produce neutrons so there are no residual radiation problems.

The secretive Tri-Alpha  Energy company, a spin-off from a UC Irvine program, has a somewhat similar design to Helion and  has raised as much as $140M from Paul Allen and others. It would be interesting to know how close they are to a net energy producing reactor.

6 thoughts on “Sci-Tech: Helion Energy aiming for commercial fusion power by 2020”

  1. “Truck size” A couple of the 50 megawatt reactors or one 100 megawatt unit might make a great power source for an interplanetary VASIMR drive.

  2. It says “Deuterium fuel extracted from water and helium from the engine’s exhaust” But the helium in the engine’s exhaust is helium-4. You need to fuse Deuterium with helium-3. And helium-3 is not consistent with their statement “fuel that is easy to obtain and plentiful”.

    1. Bob, Helion is using a different process from the Deuterium + Tritium fusion done by ITER and others (or the PB11 fusion proposed by Tri Alpha, EMC2 and Lawrenceville). Their processes produce Alpha particles (He4) as products. Helion is using a process best described as Helium catalyzed and Tritium suppressed Deuterium fusion.
      That means that they fuse Deuterium + Deuterium which then produces Tritium in one branch and Helium3 in the second brach. The two products are separated in the exhaust and Helium3 is fed back into the reactor as fuel. Tritium is stored where it naturally decays into more Helium3.
      Hope that helps.

  3. I was thinking the very same thing Rick! This is the kind of thing Chang Diaz is waiting on I would think!

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