As the nation’s top energy scientists report landmark successes in clean energy from laser-driven nuclear fusion, Colorado State University has been tapped by federal officials as one of three national centers to move the emerging technology to the next stage.
Fusion, when successful, puts out more energy than is put in when fusing atomic nuclei. Unlike the nuclear fission, or splitting, that creates current atomic energy and weapons, fusion does not produce hazardous radioactive material. It also avoids creating new greenhouse gases.
Carmen Menoni, a CSU engineering professor, described the breakthroughs in long-sought fusion over the past year as being “like when the Wright brothers had their first flight. Now we know that we can fly, correct?”
“But now there’s a lot of work,” she said, “developing the technology and advancing the technology to the point that it could become practical.”
CSU and outside observers see enormous potential in fusion replacing dirtier and costlier forms of energy, and in bolstering Colorado’s nationally recognized clean energy economy. Here are some key points about the $16 million Department of Energy award announced in December:
CSU will double the power of its laser
The new fusion hub headquartered at CSU will receive $16 million in funding over four years. Stanford University’s National Accelerator Laboratory will share oversight duties with CSU, and partner with Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of Illinois, Cornell and others.
Some of the funding will allow CSU to increase the power of its ALEPH laser from 1 petawatt to 2 petawatts, while also increasing the repetition rate, a crucial measure. What’s a petawatt, we all ask? A million billion watts. To put it in scientific terms, that’s huge.
Private companies looking to eventually profit from fusion are also part of the hub. They were some of the main drivers behind a previous CSU announcement over the summer for a joint funding agreement for a $150 million complex in Fort Collins that will house one of the most advanced laser devices in the world.
Germany’s Marvel Fusion will get access to the laser research as part of that arrangement.
Marvel’s research, like CSU’s, centers on lasers using short but frequent bursts of laser power. The breakthroughs at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory focus on longer bursts, but because of the intensity can only be done a couple of times a day. The Livermore method requires hangar-size labs.
Marvel and other private users can take advantage of Department of Energy funding that pairs researchers with tech entrepreneurs.
Colorado will co-lead one of three powerful consortiums
The two hubs besides CSU will be led by the University of Rochester and Lawrence Livermore, for a total of $42 million in federal funding among the three groups. The Biden administration has a goal for multiple proven concepts of workable fusion power plants within 10 years, according to the Department of Energy grant announcement.
“We now have the confidence that it’s not only possible, but probable, that fusion energy can be a reality,” U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said. “The scientists in these hubs will be the vanguard of game-changing and planet-saving breakthroughs.”
One scientist’s goal is a top shelf Colorado workforce
Cutting edge private companies are already flocking to Colorado to have access to the laser research hub and the academics who are developing it, Menoni said. In addition to Germany’s Marvel, one of the other private companies in the new Colorado-based hub is setting up shop here — Xcimer Energy.
The fusion hub should build on the reputation of Colorado and CSU as among the leaders in the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy to help combat climate change, Menoni said. “It’s not that we are building from scratch, we have a strong basis to support these new developments,” she said.
A primary goal for measuring success of the hub will be training diverse employees to support Colorado’s technology ambitions, Menoni said.
“There’s an immense need ton train the workforce,” she said. “If we are going to have a (fusion) nuclear power plant, we need to have shifts, we need to have engineers, we need to have Ph.D.s supporting all of these new technologies. So this is in part our role at the universities. For CSU, it is a fantastic opportunity.”
Repeating and improving the original groundbreaking fusion results in recent months has shown“researchers can repeatedly hit a goal they’ve been chasing for more than a decade,” according to a December update in the science journal Nature.