{"id":2312,"date":"2013-05-16T05:55:11","date_gmt":"2013-05-16T05:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=2312"},"modified":"2013-05-16T05:57:10","modified_gmt":"2013-05-16T05:57:10","slug":"sci-tech-helion-energy-update-tri-alpha-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=2312","title":{"rendered":"Sci-Tech: Helion Energy update + Tri-Alpha Energy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.helionenergy.com\/\" target=\"_d\">Helion Energy<\/a> is a spinoff firm from research led by\u00a0Dr. John Slough\u00a0 at the University of Washington that is seeking to build a practical nuclear fusion power system. Their <a href=\"http:\/\/helionenergy.com\/?page_id=164\" target=\"_blank\">fusion engine<\/a> is based on colliding and compressing packets of plasma. They believe with about $35 in R&amp;D funding they can reach the point where they can build a pilot plant with an additional $200M. Here are more details about the company:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/nextbigfuture.com\/2013\/05\/helion-energy-fusion-project-had.html\" target=\"_d\">Helion energy fusion project had another $2 million in funds and Made Research Progress &#8211; NextBigFuture &#8211; May.13.13<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.the-weinberg-foundation.org\/2013\/04\/30\/the-nearness-of-fusion-the-materials-and-coolant-challenges-facing-one-fusion-company-mirror-fission\/\" target=\"_d\">The nearness of fusion: The materials and coolant challenges facing one fusion company mirror fission &#8211; The Weinberg Foundation &#8211; Apri.30.13<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The packets of plasma, which will contain ionized deuterium and tritium, are held together with magnetic fields using what is called the field-reversed configuration or <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Field-reversed_configuration\" target=\"_blank\">FRC<\/a>. Another company pursuing the FRC collision approach is the secretive Tri-Alpha Energy, which is a spinoff from fusion research at the University of California at Irvine. They have gotten significant funding from a number of sources including Paul Allen and continue to attract investors:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/michaelkanellos\/2013\/03\/11\/hollywood-silicon-valley-and-russia-join-forces-on-nuclear-fusion\/\" target=\"_d\">Hollywood, Silicon Valley and Russia Join Forces on Nuclear Fusion &#8211; Forbes &#8211; Mar.11.13<\/a><\/li>\n<li>\n<div dir=\"ltr\" data-font-name=\"Helvetica\" data-canvas-width=\"577.0923386211398\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.int.washington.edu\/talks\/WorkShops\/int_12_3\/People\/Weller_H\/Weller.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Tri-Alpha structures in 12C,<\/em> Henry R. Weller, Duke University and Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (pdf)<\/a><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\" data-font-name=\"Helvetica\" data-canvas-width=\"8.896\"><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Helion Energy is a spinoff firm from research led by\u00a0Dr. John Slough\u00a0 at the University of Washington that is seeking to build a practical nuclear fusion power system. Their fusion engine is based on colliding and compressing packets of plasma. They believe with about $35 in R&amp;D funding they can reach the point where they &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=2312\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Sci-Tech: Helion Energy update + Tri-Alpha Energy<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-and-technology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-Bi","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8390,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=8390","url_meta":{"origin":2312,"position":0},"title":"Sci-Tech: Alternative fusion plans + Helion Energy","author":"TopSpacer","date":"July 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The journal Nature discusses the rise of several fusion power schemes that increasingly appear to be viable low cost alternatives to the dominant Tokamak\/ITER approach: Plasma physics: The fusion upstarts - Nature Fusion furore\u00a0- Editorial\/Nature\u00a0 One of those alternatives mentioned is\u00a0Helion Energy, a spinoff of research at the University of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"HelionExpts","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/HelionExpts.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8562,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=8562","url_meta":{"origin":2312,"position":1},"title":"Sci-Tech: Helion Energy aiming for commercial fusion power by 2020","author":"TopSpacer","date":"August 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"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: Technology overview -\u00a0Helion Energy Helion Energy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Science and Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Science and Technology","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"FusionEngine-V8-01_600[1]","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/FusionEngine-V8-01_6001.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5159,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=5159","url_meta":{"origin":2312,"position":2},"title":"Sci-Tech: Nuclear fusion projects including General Fusion, Helion Energy and MSNW","author":"TopSpacer","date":"November 2, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's an overview of several fusion power projects:\u00a0The Nuclear Fusion Arms Race Is Underway - \u00a0Motherboard. And here is info on a couple of alternative fusion approaches. General Fusion, a Canadian based company that has raised $33M so far from Jeff Bezos and other private sources, is aiming for a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Science and Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Science and Technology","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/zf8QIJ2VgqU\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8583,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=8583","url_meta":{"origin":2312,"position":3},"title":"Sci-Tech: Helion Energy obtains investment funding","author":"TopSpacer","date":"August 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In a\u00a0recent post\u00a0I discussed\u00a0Helion Energy, a spin-off company from\u00a0John Slough\u2018s\u00a0plasma physics group\u00a0at the University of Washington, that is developing a nuclear fusion power system. They are aiming to have a commercial 50MW reactor\u00a0in six years.\u00a0 Today comes word that they have raised $1.5M from\u00a0Mithril Capital Management\u00a0and\u00a0Y Combinator\u00a0venture capital firms: \u00a0More\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Science and Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Science and Technology","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9072,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=9072","url_meta":{"origin":2312,"position":4},"title":"Sci-Tech: More fusion power projects","author":"TopSpacer","date":"October 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently listed some relatively low cost, near(er) term nuclear fusion power projects, \u00a0most of which originated at government labs or from government funded research at universities but are now being pursued by private ventures: Updates on five fusion power projects\u00a0- Dynomak, Helion Power, EMC2 Polywell,\u00a0Lockheed-Martin Compact Fusion, and Sandia's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Science and Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Science and Technology","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9036,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=9036","url_meta":{"origin":2312,"position":5},"title":"Sci-Tech: Updates on five fusion power projects","author":"TopSpacer","date":"October 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"While I'm quite optimistic about progress with LENR energy production, it's great to see progress being made on more conventional fusion approaches as well. There has been a flurry of reports recently on different approaches to fusion that are far simpler\u00a0and lower in cost than the ITER Tokamak-based system that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Science and Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Science and Technology","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/UlYClniDFkM\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2312"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2314,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312\/revisions\/2314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}