“We are solving all the scientific problems that have been holding back fusion energy for over half a century.”
Australian nuclear startup HB11, started at the University of New South Wales, claims to have found a way to revolutionize current fusion technology, potentially laying the groundwork for a new era of power generation – without the risk of a nuclear explosion.
“We have bypassed all the scientific issues that have held back fusion energy for more than half a century,” said director Warren McKenzie.
Fusion energy, as its name suggests, uses the energy released by the fusion of atomic nuclei, as opposed to fission, which splits nuclei apart to generate electricity. Fusion energy has been the holy grail of energy production for decades, but scientists have yet to achieve a reaction that releases more energy than it takes to launch – although they are starting to get closer.
HB11 has found a new way that eliminates the current approach to fusion energy, which requires excessively high temperatures and pressure levels to operate.
In theory – not much more than theory now – HB11's approach is extremely simplistic and significantly cheaper. This method relies on hydrogen and the boron isotope B-11 – instead of extremely rare and expensive radioactive isotopes like tritium – and uses a special set of lasers to trigger the reaction.
Inside the “almost empty metal sphere”, fuel balls containing HB-11 isotopes are fired with two lasers to trigger a “chain reaction of fusion,” the company describes in a statement.
“You could say we use hydrogen as a dart and hope to hit boron, and if we hit one, we can start a fusion reaction,” Mackenzie said. “That's the point.”
“Creating thermonuclear fusion using temperature is essentially the random movement of atoms in the hope that they will collide with each other, our approach is much more accurate,” he added.
According to the company, the process does not “require a heat exchanger or steam turbine generator” and it is possible to feed the electrical flow “almost directly into the existing electrical grid.”
No nuclear waste, no steam, zero chance of a nuclear explosion. It sounds too good to be true – but the startup still has something to prove. Mackenzie admitted that he did not know if the startup idea could turn into a commercial reality.
