CONFIDENTIAL

Michel Laberge

Fusion Power Associates - Washington DC, USA – December 4-5, 2018

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The rise of the private fusion company continues

Source: PitchBook, Crunchbase.

Private Fusion Ventures Investment in Private Fusion Ventures

>$50M$20-50M<$20M>$50M$20-50M<$20M

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Many companies exploring density regime between MF and ICF

MTF

1.00E+02

1.00E+05

1.00E+08

1.00E+11

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Driver PowerPlasma Energy

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ITERNIF

Plasma Density (cm-3)

Magnetically Confined

Plasma at Extremely High

Magnetic Fields

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Investors

Background on General Fusion

• Total invested capital of $110 million USD

• 20% funded by Canadian government

• 80 employees

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Plasma Injector

Compression

System

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Parameter Initial Final

Plasma Density (n) 2e20 m-3 6.5e22 m-3

Plasma Temperature (T) 1.3 keV 38 keV

Compression Ratio 1 6.5

Outside Radius of Liquid Metal Flux Conserver 2.2 m 0.34 m

Aspect Ratio (A) = R/a 1.6 2.4

Plasma Current (Ip) 4.7 MA 47 MA

Center Shaft Current (Is) 7 MA 76 MA

Magnetic Field on Axis (B0) 1 T 63 T

Magnetic Field on shaft surface (Bshaft) 2.8 T 100 T

Beta (b) 15% 40%

Thermal Energy (Eth) 4 MJ 133 MJ

Magnetic Energy (Em) 28 MJ 378 MJ

Confinement required (c) 4 m2/s 4 m2/s

Fusion Yield 0 488 MJ

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• Full coverage by 2 m of PbLi shields all solid structure, no neutron damage problems to structure

• Tritium Breeding ratio of 1.4 with natural Li

• No heat load issues on divertor or any metal surface, only liquid sees high energy plasma

• Straightforward energy extraction from the hot liquid liner through a heat exchanger

• Energy from inexpensive gas pistons leading to attractive economic

• No poloidal or toroidal superconductor coils

• No RF or neutral beam auxiliary heating

• No laser or particle beams

• No expensive target to replace

Advantages

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Spherical liquid compression experiment with 3D printed rotor and stator

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Well-Diagnosed Laboratory Small Spherical Tokamak100 % CHI

● Magnetic pick-up probes

● Interferometers

● Visible light photodiodes

Edge Magnetic Probes

Thomson Scattering

Collection Optics

Ion

Doppler

● X-ray photodiodes

● X-ray phosphor camera

● Visible Spectrometers

● Multi-point Thomson scattering

● Multi-chord FIR Polarimeter

● VUV Spectrometer

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2.0

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2.52.01.51.00.50.0

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Self-organized plasmas

evolve continuously after

formation

General Fusion experience

with injector design and

operation enables tuning of

desired plasma properties

within a selected

compression window

Example:

• MHD stability

• Ion, electron temperatures >200 eV

• Density 0.7x1014 cm-3

• Strong AXUV, scintillator signals

• q profile, lambda profile (not shown)

Achieving Target Performance Within Compression Window

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Energy

(MeV)

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Density

(1014 cm-3)

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MRT2 Shot 13526

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MRT2 Shot 13526

Raw

Signal

(μA)

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Magnetic

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(eV)

B-dot Probes

Filtered AXUV

Diodes

2-Colour

Interferometer

Ion Doppler

Spectrometer

Scintillator Array

Compression Window

MRT2 Shot 13526

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Wall

Mag

netic ax

is

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Plasma Compression Science: Field Tests Explore Key Physics

Chemical driver compresses a magnetized plasma with an aluminum liner

Goals:

• Demonstrate plasma MHD stability in compression

• Demonstrate compression heating

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Consistent Progress in Magnetic Compression 16 PCS Shots, 2012-2018

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Plasma Compression

• Mechanical compression of magnetized plasma

• Recent experiments show good magnetic stability

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PI3 Large Injector: Prototype Relevant Design, Performance

Spherical tokamak plasma target

500% increase in radius from our small spherical

tokamak

10 MJ pulsed power supply

Presently commissioning

Vessel inner diameter 2 m

Major radius R 0.6 – 0.7 m

Minor radius a 0.3 – 0.4 m

Plasma current Ip 0.8 MA

Shaft current Is 1.6 MA

Plasma density ne 2x1019 – 2x1020 m-3

Temperature Te ~ Ti 100 – 500 eV

Goals, at Prototype-relevant scale:

• Validate plasma performance

• Develop and demonstrate technology

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Next Prototype

• Optimize performance with flexible operating envelope

• Modularize systems to permit rapid innovation

Strategy

Key Features and Specifications

• 3 meter Diameter Plasma (~70% power plant scale)

• 15 - 25 MJ Plasma Formation Bank

• MAST, SSPX equivalent starting plasma

• Liquid Lithium

• D-D

• 3.5 - 4 ms Compression Time

• Up to 10:1 Radial Compression Ratio

• Designed for 1 Compression Shot / Day Operating Rate

• 10 KeV, 10% of Lawson

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• 346 drivers (pistons)

• Lithium liquid metal (~9 tons)

• Superstructure supports center shaft, cones, plasma injector

Compression Systems

Vessel Inner Radius: 1.95 m

Liquid Lithium Temperature: 350 ºC

Liquid Lithium Volume: 17 m3

Pressure Pulse: 30 MPa over 2 ms

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• Sufficient plasma formation performance has been achieved

• Piston and servo control systems are working fine

• Plasma compressions tests are producing good results

• We are planning to build a large integrated liquid metal prototype, aiming for temperatures of 10 keV and 10% of Lawson

• MAST, NSTX class initial plasma, compressed 10X linear

• 5 ½ years design, build ,operate

Conclusion

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Website

generalfusion.com