US’ commercial fusion energy goal can be achieved with new fuel recycling method

Marathon Fusion will optimize the recycling of deuterium and tritium in fusion reactors

The company also received funding from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) under the INFUSE program. In collaboration with the Colorado School of Mines, the company in set to optimize the recycling of deuterium and tritium in fusion reactors.

It’s claimed that fusion can potentially provide a safe, abundant, zero-carbon-emitting source of reliable primary energy. Once developed, first-generation fusion plants may likely use a combination of abundant deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen) and lithium as fuel. 

Superpermeable hydrogen pump greatly accelerates tritium processing using separation membranes

The company claims that the superpermeable hydrogen pump greatly accelerates tritium processing using plasma technology and separation membranes. “Speed enables the efficient use of scarce isotopes critical to fusion’s viability.”

“The selections in INFUSE program showcase our continuing commitment to the fusion industry in the U.S. and our goal to share widely unique capabilities at national laboratories and U.S. universities,” said Jean Paul Allain, DOE Associate Director of Science for Fusion Energy Sciences.

“Partnering with businesses and working together is a win-win for our fusion industry, the DOE, and the nation.”  

New efficient fuel recycling method could help US

A new efficient fuel recycling method could help the United States, which has set a goal of enabling a fusion pilot plant, led by the private sector, on a decadal timescale as the country moves toward a net-zero economy by 2050.

The 17 projects were selected via a competitive peer review process managed by the INFUSE leadership team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. 

The program solicited proposals from the fusion industry and selected projects for one- or two-year awards, all with budgets ranging between $100,000 and $500,000 each. 

Commercial fusion energy has the potential to revolutionize the energy industry, help to achieve energy abundance and security, and help meet growing clean energy needs of the U.S. and the world, according to U.S. Department of Energy.

$6 billion of cumulative equity investments into private fusion companies

Overall, more than $6 billion of cumulative equity investments into private fusion companies, with 80% of these investments into United States fusion companies, is an indication of fusion’s potential upside as a future commercial energy technology, according to DOE.

While the shift toward greater private-sector involvement in fusion R&D is seen most dramatically in the United States, it is a strongly growing global trend with equity investments in companies based in Canada, U.K., Japan, E.U., China, and others. Fusion has become a global race.