Inertia Enterprises finds a way to make its fusion fuel fast
Fusion power startup Inertia Enterprises reduced the fuel filling process from a week to just a few hours. It's one of ten hurdles the company must overcome to make a profitable power plant.
Fusion startup Inertia Enterprises has developed a method to drastically reduce the time it takes to produce its fusion fuel pellets from several days to just minutes. This breakthrough could significantly lower one of the ten challenges the company must overcome to build a commercial power plant. Inertia's CEO, Jeff Lawson, believes the innovation is crucial for turning prototypes into mass-manufacturable products.
The company's process involves creating fuel pellets with a diamond shell and a frozen mixture of deuterium and tritium isotopes, which are then wrapped in gold casings. Lawson noted that even minor imperfections in the spherical shape of the pellets can hinder the fusion reaction. Inertia compressed the manufacturing process to make it commercially viable, with the fuel pellets now being made in about two to three hours, compared to up to a week at the National Ignition Facility (NIF).
The startup plans to use a laser that is four times more powerful than the one at the NIF, allowing for more tolerable imperfections and speed in the manufacturing process. This reduction in fuel filling time also means less tritium is needed to be held, as tritium is expensive and difficult to handle. Inertia anticipates using 10 fuel pellets per second in its full-scale plant, making the facility smaller, faster, and more efficient.
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