The experimental setup creates a Z-pinch plasma that is one hundred centimeters long and one centimeter in radius. The experimental program is dedicated to exploring the relationship between sheared flows and plasma stability for possible application in nuclear fusion reactors and advanced space propulsion. The FuZE project is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy and the National Nuclear Security Agency.
Zap Energy was started in 2018 to commercialize research done at the U of W under the FuZE program. The year it was founded, Zap Energy demonstrated neutron generation from a sheared-flow stabilized Z-pinch experiment. Instead of a varying current generated in the plasma by electromagnets, Zap induced a current directly into the plasma in such a fashion that the speed of the induced plasma flow was greater near the wall of the cylinder and slower toward the center. This is what is known as sheared flow. This allowed them to stabilize the plasma five thousand times longer than the conventional cylindrical Z-pinch device. Their fuel was a mixture of twenty percent deuterium and eighty percent hydrogen.
Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, is an investor in Zap Energy along with other revolutionary projects for nuclear fission and fusion. Chevron, the fossil fuel giant, has just announced that it is investing in Zap Energy. The money is being passed to Zap Energy through Chevron Technology ventures.