Tractebel and First Light Fusion have just signed a framework agreement for the development of the Machine 4 project which is designed to demonstrate net energy gain through nuclear fusion.
First Light is based at the U.K. Atomic Energy Agency’s (UKAEA) Culham campus, near Oxford. It was founded in 2011. First Light is working on projectile fusion which is a branch of inertial confinement fusion. Last December the National Ignition Facility in the USA became the first fusion research facility to demonstrate energy gain from fusion. It used a laser array to trigger fusion.
First Light’s inertial confinement approach will attempt to create the extreme temperatures and pressures required for fusion by compressing a target using a hyper velocity projectile. The First Light plant design avoids the three biggest engineering challenges of fusion. These are preventing neutron flux damage, producing tritium and managing extreme heat flux.
First Light utilizes a “liquid lithium wall” approach inside the reactor vessel where the fusion reaction will take place. The company says that this technique gives it an inherent advantage in tritium production. The fusion reaction is surrounded by liquid lithium which allows tritium self-sufficiency to be easily reached. This makes it possible to design the system for excel tritium production.
The two companies said that the Machine 4 demonstrator "will house the largest pulsed power driver in the world, 75 meters in diameter". Tractabel will "leverage its international expertise in fusion". The company has worked on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in France.
Nick Hawker is the CEO of First Light Fusion. He said, : “The design and development of Machine 4 ... is well under way as we aim for completion well before the end of this decade. We are delighted to be working with Tractebel through this critical phase, leveraging their unrivalled expertise in major fusion infrastructure projects.”
Denis Dumont is Tractabel’s chief global nuclear officer. He said, “With this contract, Tractebel re-affirms its commitment to support the UK nuclear industry, fission and fusion, and help meet the UK’s ambition to be net-zero by 2050 ... thanks to our internationally recognized nuclear experience, we are able to provide innovative solutions to the most challenging projects. We look forward to developing our relationship with First Light Fusion.”
First Light Fusion and the UKAEA signed an agreement in January of this year for the design and construction of the Machine 4 facility. Machine 4 is not intended to generate electricity. However, it will assist in the development of technology needed for future inertial confinement fusion energy power plants. First Light said that it will “have a stored electrical energy of c.100 mega joules with the capability of launching projectiles at 60kms per second. This speed on impact inside the target will accelerate to c.200kms per second as a result of First Light’s exclusive amplifier technology. The amplifier focuses the energy of the projectile into the fusion fuel, both boosting the pressure from impact to deliver to the fuel and shaping the waves to produce spherical implosions”. First Light’s current Machine 3 launches a projectile at c.20 kms per second.