Funding for General Fusion from US Department of Energy

Technology taps energy from nuclear reaction.
Photo: General Fusion

VANCOUVER — For the second time this year, General Fusion has been awarded a funding partnership with the US Department of Energy’s Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) program.

General Fusion and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the largest science and energy laboratory in the US, will partner to study plasma diagnostics. The fusion energy developer based in Vancouver said the research has the potential to improve the quality of the plasma used to create fusion. This would advance design and operation of the company’s planned fusion demonstration plant.

“This research will lead to improvements in the tools we have to measure plasma performance, which is instrumental in generating fusion energy,” said Michael Delage, chief technology officer.

Earlier this year, the company received funding to partner with Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), one of the world’s leading fusion research laboratories. That collaboration is developing models for advanced stability analysis for magnetized target fusion. The project will apply advanced computational stability analyses to model equilibrium states of plasma, also providing insights important to the demonstration plant project.

General Fusion was one of eight private companies selected to receive an award during this round of the program.