FUSION
ENERGY

POWER TO

TRANSFORM THE ENERGY LANDSCAPE

FUEL FROM WATER

Deuterium (H2 or D), a natural hydrogen isotope contained in water, is fused to produce tremendous energy that is four million times more powerful than chemical reactions, such as burning fossil fuels, and four times more than nuclear fission. Costing less than $1 per gram, deuterium is extracted using a simple, established, and environmentally benign industrial process. With only half a gram needed to power an average home for a year, deuterium fuel amounts to much less than one percent the cost of electricity with enough in seawater alone to power the globe for millions of years. 

NO HARMFUL IMPACT

The deuterium fuel used in a fusion power  system produces inert helium, which is a valuable commodity. No emissions contributing to climate change or pollution are created. There is no carbon footprint from mining, refining, or major transport, as is common with other forms of fuel. The extraction of deuterium has no effect on the water and is restored to the source.

EVERY

DROP

OF WATER

IS 0.03%

DEUTERIUM

BY MASS

STELLARATOR

CLEAN BASELOAD POWER

FOR MODERN NATION BUILDING

The stellarator is a innovative marriage of elegant physics, engineering artistry, and practical utility.

​

Invented in the United States by Dr. Lyman Spitzer in 1951, the stellarator uses shaped magnetics to confine extremely hot charged gas along a twisting circular path. The complex magnetic fields are designed to optimally and quiescently confine the hot plasma.

The external
twisted magnetic fields keep the fuel particles from
drifting away from where they fuse.

standout performance

A SHORTER PATH TO NET POWER 

There are three key factors that determine fusion performance: the density and temperature of the ions undergoing fusion and the energy confinement time -  how long the energy is retained in the fusion plasma until it is lost to the surroundings. This is known as the "triple product."

​

Tokamaks and stellarators are the two leading fusion power systems that have broken away from the pack in the race to reach NET POWER, a milestone comparable to the first powered flight by the Wright brothers. Alternative concepts being pursed by fusion startups are making progress but remain many orders of magnitude lower in performance.

Stellarators have demonstrated high levels of performance in each of the triple product categories:

DENSITY

TEMPERATURE

TIME

116

4.5

x 10

20

41

250

100

ions per meter

3

million

o

(electron)

million

o

(ion)

milliseconds

(energy conf.)

seconds

(discharge)

After many decades of research, the performance of stellarators has been shown to scale very predictably given its simplicity of operation and proven plasma stability at these high ion and electron energy levels. This reduces the risk of unforeseen physics complications that can occur with other fusion concepts when progressing into the net gain energy regimes needed for commercial operation.

OPTIMIZATION

A BREAKTHROUGH IN CONFINEMENT

Unlike tokamaks that operate in pulses with susceptibility to disruptions, stellarators can work continuously free of disruptions. However, conventional stellarators have lagged behind tokamak performance because they do not posses the simple circular symmetry of the tokamak, which was better at confining the plasma. This has all changed with the groundbreaking discovery in the 1980s by Jürgen Nührenberg and Allen Boozer of a hidden symmetry in stellarators realized by precisely contouring their magnetic fields so that the various forces causing the particles to drift, cancel each other out. This "quasi symmetry" was the dawn of the modern "optimized" stellarator with its characteristic organic shape.

​

Because confinement of the plasma in a stellarator is driven solely by the external magnets, modifying their fields has a major impact on performance. To tailor a three-dimensional magnetic field with precisely the right shape to achieve quasi-symmetry requires extensive calculations. Advances in computer modeling code and high performance computing has provided this ability. These powerful tools have resulted in an entirely new class of stellarator optimized for superior confinement and fusion performance.

In 2007, proof for the benefits of magnetic field shaping were first demonstrated with HSX - the world's first optimized stellarator designed and built by Type One co-founders Prof. David Anderson and the German theorists who conceived of and designed the original quasi-helically symmetric stellarator. HSX measured 2.4 meters in diameter and cost USD $7.5 million to build. Due to its optimized configuration, HSX proved superior confinement via strong reductions in neoclassical transport, a previously untamed loss mechanism that causes particles and heat to leak from the plasma. HSX continues to operate and has undergone a recent $7 million power upgrade to extend its research capabilities.

3D shaping to minimize neoclassical transport was further demonstrated with W7-X in Germany, a $1.2 billion statement of conviction for optimized stellarators by the German government. The largest experimental stellarator to date (5.5 m major radius), W7-X went online in 2015 and in 2018, it achieved a world record for stellarator fusion performance with the greatest triple product to date. With cooling system upgrades currently underway, it is targeted in 2022 to reach performance levels comparable to that of tokamaks and at run times of 30 minutes. This will be an unprecedented duration for any fusion system.

OPTIMIZING FOR TURBULENCE

While mitigating neoclassical transport was a major leap forward, the largest loss channel limiting fusion performance in a stellarator is turbulence, which determines the energy confinement time. With turbulence, small eddies cause hot particles from the plasma to escape, reducing the thermal insulation that maintains the rate of fusion at its core.

Given the complexity of the physical process, the analytical tools to address turbulence did not exist at the time that HSX and W7-X were designed. Newly developed and highly sophisticated three-dimensional, gyrokinetic turbulence codes for simulating stellarator physics, combined with high performance computing, have sufficiently advanced to meet this challenge. The resulting stellarator designs generate a new class of high performance plasmas, which will realized in the next Type One stellarator: STARBLAZER I.

GAME CHANGERS

KEY ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES

In addition to providing reliable and abundant power when and where it is needed, a stellarator power plant must be cost-competitive to build and operate. This is now possible due to three transformational capabilities being applied by Type One in collaboration with our academic, national lab, and corporate partners:

3

HTS MAGNETS

​

 New high-temperature superconducting

(HTS) magnets can carry over 200 times the current carrying capacity of copper wires for a more compact stellarator. It also requires less cooling power than conventional low temperature magnets.

With HSX, a quasi-helical stellarator (QHS), there was successful agreement of theory and design to the real-world experiment. We know that QH stellarators can be built and with key physics benefits of the quasi-helical configuration demonstrated. Many of the physics properties of QHS are equivalent to the beneficial features of the tokamak, but without the plasma current instabilities and disruptions.
 

STARBLAZER is a new stellarator currently under design by Type One that incorporates advanced optimization to dramatically reduce both neoclassical and turbulent transport - another world first. Optimizing confinement as a function of magnetic geometry addresses performance at the foundation level to avoid design pathways that would result in a much larger, less versatile, and more expensive power unit.

Quasi-helical
symmetric
magnetic field
configuration optimized
to control losses from neoclassical and
turbulent
transport.

To extend stellarator fusion performance into the net power regime, STARBLAZER I will determine the optimized 3D-field configuration to be used for building the commercial demonstrator STARBLAZER II, that will reach a target net power factor of over 20X.

Adapted from Phys. Plasmas 26, 082504 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5098761

LHD - Large Helical Device Stellarator (Japan - National Institute for Fusion Science)

W7-X - Wendelstein 7-X (Germany - Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics)

To reduce build time and cost, STARBLAZER I will incorporate generative-designed and additive-manufactured components, which include the magnet assemblies, magnet support shell, heat exchanger, and vacuum vessel:

TM

Type One is building the machine that builds the machine. Type One is developing from the ground up NEBULA - a proprietary large format, selective high precision additive manufacturing platform made for the economical mass production of major fusion components.

3 

ECONOMICAL POWER PLANT

​DESIGNING FOR RAPID & WIDESPREAD ADOPTION

DEUTERIUM FUEL

AND HYDROGEN

FROM WATER

(ON-SITE OPTIONAL)

FUSION

BYPRODUCTS

PROCESSING

(e.g. HELIUM)

1000MWe D-D STELLARATOR

UNIT & HEAT EXCHANGER

SUPERCRITICAL H20 STEAM CYCLE WITH TURBINE BYPASS LOAD FOLLOWING

SURPLUS ELECTRITCY STORED AS HYDROGEN FOR INSTANT GRID BALANCING OR SALE (OPTIONAL)

ELECTRICAL SWITCH

YARD

Stellarator physics are inherently suited for power plant operation:

LOW RECIRCULATING POWER

ENERGY EFFICIENCY

STEADY STATE OPERATION

SYSTEM RELIABILITY

NO CURRENT DISRUPTIONS

INVESTMENT SECURITY

STABLE PLASMA OPERATION

OPERATION ROBUSTNESS

HIGH DENSITY OPERATION

MAXIMIZE SYSTEM OUTPUT

​In addition, to disrupt carbon-based fuels, a fusion power plant must meet a combination of low capital costs, rapid construction time, low downtime, and ease of maintenance. The combination of additive manufacturing, high magnetic field, and supercritical water thermal cycle offers the best path for a stellarator plant to achieve these objectives. The following non-subsidized costs are targeted for 10th-of-a-kind power units and nth-of-a-kind balance of plant:

TARGETS

CAPITAL COST (FUSION ISLAND)

CONSTRUCTION TIME

FIRST WALL LIFETIME

(CAT D-D)

<¢5

kw-hr

COST OF ELECTRICITY

TECH-TO-MARKET

PATH TO A PILOT POWER PLANT

The commercialization campaign has three phases with technical milestones tied to three iterative stellarator builds demonstrating progressive gains in performance, simplification, and cost through the parallel application of 3D magnetic field optimization, industrial additive manufacturing, and non-planar high temperature superconducting electromagnets: 

PHASE

1

PHASE

2

PHASE

3

fuel CYCLE

TARGETING SIMPLICITY & LONGEVITY

The force of gravity at the core of the Sun creates tremendous density and unending confinement time that allows hydrogen to fuse at only 15 million degrees. In a fusion device, such conditions are not attainable, necessitating temperatures in the range of 100 million degrees.  In addition, hydrogen is 24 orders of magnitude less reactive to fuse than its neutron-rich isotopes deuterium and tritium - the most viable fusion fuels for use here on Earth.

​

DEUTERIUM-TRITIUM FUEL CYCLE

The easiest fuel combination to fuse is deuterium with tritium (D-T) to create helium and a highly energetic 14 MeV neutron. Tritium does not exist in nature has to be bred in the "blanket" that surrounds the plasma using lithium and the neutrons generated during the fusion process. With 80% of the energy carried by the neutrons, part of the blanket includes a working fluid that slows down the neutrons to thermal energies, and then transfers that heat to a power conversion cycle. Given the high energies of these neutrons and the additional layer required for tritium breeding, blankets used for the D-T fuel cycle have to be over one meter thick. Additionally, structural materials need to operate at very high temperatures of over 550 degrees Celsius  and withstand damage from the high energy neutrons, necessitating more frequent replacement of plasma facing components.

DEUTERIUM

TRITIUM

HELIUM

HIGH ENERGY

NEUTRON

CATALYZED DEUTERIUM-DEUTERIUM FUEL CYCLE

The demonstrated high density, high beta, and large power gain factor of stellarators paired with high field, facilitates the potential use of deuterium as the only fuel. It is "catalyzed" since the helium-3 produced from the primary D-D reaction is subsequently fused with deuterium in secondary reactions to produce more energy and helium. Unlike D-T, the majority of the fusion energy is not carried by the energetic neutrons, but in the charged particles that have undergone fusion:

Cat D-D Charged Particle Chain

DEUTERIUM

FUSES

TWO FUSION

PATHS TAKEN

PRODUCED TRITIUM AND HELIUM 3 FUSED WITH

ADDITIONAL DEUTERIUM TO BECOME HELIUM

deployment

FOR RAPID MARKET CAPTURE

REVENUE STRATEGY

Revenues will be generated through the mass production and sale of stellarator power units produced from Type One Staryards strategically located in major markets to remove the high cost and time of transporting large components overseas. A blend of pre-assembled and in inventory components with just-in-time, rapid additive manufacturing will be employed to meet a 2-year plant installation and commissioning target. To participate in revenues from the sale of electricity (~$1.3 trillion per year addressable market), Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) will be secured with utilities and partner deployment firms specializing in Engineering, Procurement, Construction (EPC), as well as Operating and Maintenance (O&M).

​

MARKET SIZE

Approximately 300 quadrillion BTUs ("quads") of new energy are required by 2050 (US IEA) to meet demand, raising total global energy consumption to 911 quads. This translates to roughly $50 trillion in cumulative investments in generation over the same period. Carbon-based energy is projected to lose 11% of market share during this period but will still comprise a majority share of the energy mix at 69%. This amounts to 125 quads in new carbon-based energy generating 3.6 billion tonnes of additional CO2 per year in 2050.

Energy Mix

5%

SEGMENTATION

Type One will initially focus on intercepting new natural gas, coal, and diesel generating capacity in the 1 GWe and greater range and replacement of decommissioned plants for heat and electricity in the emerging markets of OECD Asia. This market represents:

● the largest and fastest-growing region in the world for energy consumption (a projected 

   70% increase from 2018 to 2050)

● new baseload power plants averaging 820 MWe (natural gas) to 1100 MWe (nuclear)

● high fractions of fossil fuels in their energy mix (e.g. China and India draw more than 70%

   of their electricity from coal - US EIA).

Type One will spearhead fusion industry-led initiatives for regions to adopt regulations and licensing appropriate for fusion (already underway in the US), provide government loan guarantees on construction, and offer fusion subsidies to utilities.

DISPLACE 

CARBON-BASED

NEW

GENERATION

IN OECD

ASIA

FOR >500MWe

BASELOAD

WITH HIGH % OF

INDUSTRIAL LOAD

FUSION

SUBSIDIES

CLEAN POWER

INVESTMENTS

GOV LOAN

GUARANTEES

ENERGY

DEPENDENCY

GEOPOLITICAL

PRESSURES

CARBON

TAX

REGULATORY

FRAMEWORK

MANDATED COAL RETIREMENT

EARLY ADOPTER

CULTURE 

POLLUTION

LEVELS

Making up more than half of global energy consumption, the biggest challenge is the decarbonization of industry, which include energy intensive applications such as making steel and cement, desalinization, and upcoming atmospheric decarbonization deployments.

POWERING THE HYDROGEN ECONOMY

Currently, 95% of the world's hydrogen fuel is made by reforming methane, which is energy intensive, requires fossil fuel inputs and emits carbon dioxide. In contrast, hydrogen-from-fusion can be economically generated at industrial scale and stored as an emissions-free byproduct of both the deuterium extraction process and fusion reactions. These factors will be a major cost and ecological enabler for the proliferation of hydrogen applications in stored heat and power, industry feedstock, and fuel cell electric vehicles (a 2018/2020 KPMG study discovered that 78% of automobile executives think that hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles will be the future and 84% think that FCEVs will experience their breakthrough in industrial transportation – particularly where batteries become too heavy for heavy duty trucks above 34 tonnes).

TEAM

​

SPONSORED RESEARCH CONTRIBUTORS

Asst. Prof. Lianyi Chen
ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING - MATERIAL SCIENCE

Asst. Prof. Lianyi Chen holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Zhejiang University and joint affiliations with the Metals Design and Manufacturing Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Missouri S&T Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Center for Aerospace & Manufacturing Technologies.

Lianyi's expertise is at the intersection of AM manufacturing, materials science, and nanotechnology. His specializations include new materials, metallurgy, and processes for metal additive manufacturing, metals nanoprocessing, smart manufacturing using advanced sensing and control technologies, metal matrix nanocomposites, lightweight and refractory metals, metallic glasses and in-situ microstructure characterization.

​

Lianyi has developed a customized laser powder bed AM system and laser blown powder DED system for in-situ high-speed x-ray imaging/diffraction research, as well as led multiple AM projects funded by NSF, DOE’s KCNSC, and Boeing. He has published over 50 papers in peer-reviewed journals, including 1 in Nature, 1 in Nature Communications, 2 in Physical Review Letters, and 4 in Acta Materialia. He is also an inventor of 6 patents.

Luquant Singh
Electrical Engineer

Luquant is an Electrical Engineering PhD student at UW-Madison interested in stellarator design and manufacturing. He has been a member of the HSX Plasma Laboratory for nearly four years, recently joining the lab as a graduate student. His current work is focused on improving the design of stellarator coils using computational methods. 

Dr. Don Spong
STELLARATOR PLASMA AND COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICS 

Don is a Distinguished R&D staff member in the Theory and Modeling group within the Fusion Energy Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He received his PhD in Nuclear Engineering - Plasma Physics from the University of Michigan. Don’s interests are in energetic particle confinement/instabilities, runaway electron physics, and neoclassical transport in 3D systems. He helped develop the stellarator optimization and analysis methods used for the QPS/NCSX compact stellarator projects. He has served two appointments as a visiting professor at the institute (NIFS) which operates Japan’s largest stellarator project (LHD). He currently serves as the topical group leader for the energetic particle physics ITPA group that advises ITER.

KEY COLLABORATORS

FROM PHYSICS TO GRID

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