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Energy
OXFORD SPINOFF DEMONSTRATES WORLD-FIRST HYPERSONIC "PROJECTILE FUSION"
By Loz Blain
April 06, 2022
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Oxford spinoff demonstrates wo...
First Light Fusion has demonstrated measurable fusion, using high-speed
projectiles slamming into specially designed falling targets with fuel pellets
embedded in them
First Light Fusion
View 5 Images
1/5
First Light Fusion has demonstrated measurable fusion, using high-speed
projectiles slamming into specially designed falling targets with fuel pellets
embedded in them
First Light Fusion
2/5
First Light says it's aiming for a 150-MW fusion plant in the 2030s, costing
less than a billion dollars to build
First Light Fusion
3/5
Multiple cavities collapse when hit with a hypersonic projectile to produce
converging shockwaves that generate fusion-inducing pressure and temperature
levels that cause deuterium fuel pellets to implode
First Light Fusion
4/5
Complex target designs place multiple cavities around fuel pellets, positioned
to precisely tune the shockwaves that result when a hypersonic projectile hits
it
First Light Fusion
5/5
The fusion reactor design concept: a tall tower surrounded by falling curtains
of liquid lithium metal
First Light Fusion
View gallery - 5 images
Oxford spinoff First Light Fusion says its novel "projectile" approach offers
"the fastest, simplest and cheapest route to commercial fusion power." The
company is now celebrating a significant breakthrough with its first confirmed
fusion reaction.
The nuclear fusion space is heating up, if you'll pardon the pun, as the world
orients itself toward a clean energy future. Where current nuclear power plants
release energy by splitting atoms in fission reactions, fusion reactors will
release energy in the same way the Sun does – by smashing atoms together so hard
and so fast that they fuse into higher elements.
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Most of the big tokamak and stellarator-based fusion projects in progress now
intend to create monstrously high temperatures, higher than in the core of the
Sun, in magnetically confined plasma, hoping to get those atoms moving fast
enough to overcome the powerful repulsion between two nuclei.
But there are other approaches, including that of Australia's HB11, which takes
a more targeted approach by using ultra-powerful lasers to accelerate hydrogen
atoms into boron fuel pellets at tremendous speed, yielding positively-charged
helium atoms, which can be directly harvested for electrical power.
First Light Fusion says it's got another approach altogether, that doesn't
require expensive, powerful lasers or magnets to get the job done. Like the HB11
approach, First Light requires tremendous speed. Hypersonic speed, in fact, in
the form of a projectile being fired from a railgun at a falling target, which
is specifically designed to generate finely tuned, collapsing shockwaves that
create momentary pressure levels nearly a billion times higher than atmospheric
air pressure at sea level. Pressure levels high enough to cause small embedded
deuterium fuel pellets to implode upon themselves at high enough speeds to
overcome nuclear repulsion and start fusion reactions.
Multiple cavities collapse when hit with a hypersonic projectile to produce
converging shockwaves that generate fusion-inducing pressure and temperature
levels that cause deuterium fuel pellets to implode
First Light Fusion
This technique, says First Light, is inspired by the pistol shrimp, and its
famous underwater bubble-shooting weapon. These little fellas snap their claws
together at incredible speed, creating a shockwave and squirting a jet of water
forward at up to 60 mph (96 km/h). That's so fast that the water itself gets
vaporized as it shears against the still water around it, creating tiny bubble
cavities. The bubble cavities interact with the shockwave, and collapse in an
infinitesimally short period of time – but for the briefest of moments, the
vapor in those bubbles is heated to tens of thousands of degrees, and even emits
a bright flash of light. Amazing stuff, you can hear Richard Hammond talking
about it and see these shockwaves in ultra-slow motion in this BBC Earth Lab
video clip.
First Light took this as a starting point and began designing ways to amplify
this effect well beyond what the shrimp's claw can achieve, to a point where it
can create fusion-friendly conditions. It has created and refined a series of
small targets, some in cubic form with sides of about 1 cm (0.4 inches) that are
designed to create a series of interacting shockwaves and bubble cavities when
they're hit with coin-shaped projectiles at super-high velocities. These
shockwaves intersect at planned moments to supercharge the pistol shrimp's
cavitation effects, greatly multiplying the pressure around a small, precisely
positioned fuel pellet in the middle.
Complex target designs place multiple cavities around fuel pellets, positioned
to precisely tune the shockwaves that result when a hypersonic projectile hits
it
First Light Fusion
The projectile is fired using an electromagnetic design similar to a railgun, at
insane speeds around 6.5 km/sec (23,400 km/h, 14,540 mph), or just under 19
times the speed of sound. It's aimed directly at the target, which itself is
dropping through the reaction chamber through the same entrance. When it hits,
the impact pressure is around 100 gigapascals.
The target design uses interacting cavity collapses and pressure waves to
amplify that pressure up to around one terapascal, and when the fuel pellet
implodes just as massive pressure waves bear down on it from all sides, the
final pressure can get as high as 100 terapascals, with the fuel accelerating to
more than 70 km/sec (252,000 km/h, 157,000 mph), or Mach 204, as it implodes.
You can see this in action below, with colors representing pressure levels and
the small sphere in the middle representing the fuel pellet.
Advanced target
At this instant, says First Light, the fuel becomes the fastest-moving object on
Earth, and the pressure and temperature that fuel pellet generates as it's
compressed from several millimeters down to less than 100 microns is enough to
trigger fusion reactions. These release impressive amounts of heat energy and
neutrons, which are absorbed by 1-meter-thick (3.3-ft) curtains of liquid
lithium metal flowing within the chamber. You can see a simulation of this
process in the video below.
Projectile fusion
As the pellet splashes down into a pool of liquid lithium, a heat exchanger
transfers the heat to water, generating steam that turns a turbine and produces
electricity in the final commercial reactor design.
Each target, says First Light, would produce enough energy to power an average
UK home for two years. According to Energy UK, that equates to about 6.2
megawatt-hours. In a commercial power plant, this would happen once every 30
seconds, giving the plant an effective output around 744 MW – a little under the
1 GW of the average US nuclear fission plant, but without any nuclear waste or
potential of meltdown.
The company says this relatively simple technique (well, certainly simple when
compared to tokamak and stellarator designs) "offers a pathway to a very
competitive Levelised Cost Of Energy ("LCOE") of under US$50/MWh." That's only a
little pricier than the LCOE of current solar and wind energy – but of course it
can be produced on demand, making it an excellent base load generator for a
power grid, or a good option to ramp up and down to keep up with the demand
curve. Here's another video, zoomed out to show the wider reactor design.
First Light reactor concept
The company has now demonstrated a proof of concept with inspectors from the UK
Atomic Energy Authority on hand for over three months to witness a fusion shot,
review the experimental setup, check calibration data and look over the data
processing and statistical analysis. First Light says the UK AEA has confirmed
the experiment showed that the shot produced neutrons "consistent with those
produced from the fusion of deuterium fuel."
Now, this is an early-stage demonstration, and as such only about 50 such
neutrons were produced, matching the predicted yield. But First Light says it's
got to the point of achieving fusion in record time, showing "the most rapid
progress on fusion triple product of any project in the history of fusion." It's
also spent less than $59 million to get there, where the most conservative
budget for the ITER project sits at around $20 billion.
The company says plans for an experiment that'll demonstrate net energy gain are
"advancing at pace," whatever that means, and that the team is "working towards
a pilot plant producing ~150 MW of electricity and costing less than $1 billion
in the 2030s."
First Light says it's aiming for a 150-MW fusion plant in the 2030s, costing
less than a billion dollars to build
First Light Fusion
"The key technology is our target designs," says First Light Fusion co-founder
and CEO Dr. Nick Hawker. "As objects, these are very complex, but the physics is
simpler than other fusion approaches; it can be understood and simulated
accurately. With this result we have proven our new method for inertial fusion
works and, more importantly, we have proven our design process."
It certainly feels like momentum is building in the nuclear fusion space, with
massive governmental efforts beginning to see serious competition from
innovative commercial companies like First Light and HB11 that are attacking
this old chestnut from fresh angles. The dream of fusion energy is well and
truly alive, and we wish each project every success.
Check out a short snippet of a 2019 introductory presentation by Hawker below.
First Light Fusion's mission and projectile fusion approach
Source: First Light Fusion
View gallery - 5 images
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11 comments
Loz Blain
Loz has been one of our most versatile contributors since 2007, and has since
proven himself as a photographer, videographer, presenter, producer and podcast
engineer, as well as a senior features writer. Joining the team as a motorcycle
specialist, he's covered just about everything for New Atlas, concentrating
lately on eVTOLs, hydrogen, energy, aviation, audiovisual, weird stuff and
things that go fast.
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ClauS April 6, 2022 05:17 AM
Everybody gangsta until that lithium is touching a drop of water. That's why
almost nobody is taking liquid sodium cooled reactor serious, at least not for
large scale deployment.
usugo April 6, 2022 07:32 AM
~150 MW of electricity and costing (less than) $1 billion
that doesn't look really competitive
SussexWolf April 6, 2022 09:36 AM
Good to have another fusion concept running in the race. If it works as
anticipated, then it should be competitive, scaleable, and safe. But, much the
same could be said of many of the competing fusion concepts outside of the
traditional and late running ITER lead concept.
Kpar April 6, 2022 12:07 PM
What happens to the lithium when the neutrons strike it? Does it become
radioactive, like the stainless steel cooling jackets of a Tokamak or inertial
confinement?
Brian M April 6, 2022 01:06 PM
Impressive, but still along way to go - Perhaps this Nuclear fusion technique is
only 19 years away from realty!
TechGazer April 6, 2022 02:02 PM
If they can improve the system so that it fuses boron-H, they can skip the
problems caused by neutron production.
Perhaps lasers or particle beams could be added to boost the temperature and
pressure at just the right nanosecond. Inducing a magnetic field in the target
or projectiles might also help contain the reaction longer.
For ClauS, I think all the fusion reactors using deuterium involve a lithium
shell. It's not that much of a hazard. Much less of a hazard than a large mass
of fissile material.
michael42 April 6, 2022 03:48 PM
Plasma Fusion
MHD allows control of the electron ponderomotive forces creating X-rays in
chamber and along with further addition of He-3 fuel is used to
sustain a throttled fusion reaction in chamber.
byrneheart April 6, 2022 06:42 PM
This seems to be a heat creation project and fusion is a side effect. The
creation of neutrons is recorded but not a use for them. Heat into steam into
turbines. The Australian project mentioned is turning fusion directly into
electricity.
HoppyHopkins April 6, 2022 09:11 PM
If they truly have achieved fusion reactions with this method, they already have
the basis for a working interplanetary fusion drive and potential interstellar
fusion drive system for space exploration along the lines of projects "Medusae",
"Daedalus" and "Orion". Velosities as high as 10-30% the speed of light are
possible with impulse type fusion drives
Nelson Hyde Chick April 6, 2022 11:34 PM
What will happen first, mankind destroys itself or we develop fusion energy?
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