[1/2] A portion of Helion Energy’s Polaris prototype for fusion energy reaction experiments is seen in this company’s undated handout photo. Helion Energy/Handout via Portal
WASHINGTON, May 10 (Portal) – Private US nuclear fusion company Helion Energy will power Microsoft (MSFT.O) in about five years, the companies said on Wednesday. This is the first such deal for the power source that powers the sun was elusive on Earth.
Government labs and more than 30 companies are vying to generate electricity from fusion, which could one day help reduce climate change-related emissions around the world. Unlike today’s nuclear fission reactors, it could generate electricity without producing long-lived radioactive waste.
Fusion occurs when two light atoms, such as hydrogen, heated to extreme temperatures fuse into one heavier atom, releasing large amounts of energy in the process. Until now, terrestrial fusion reactions have been transient in nature, absorbing more energy than they release. However, to achieve a net energy gain, companies have raised approximately $5 billion in private funds.
The Helion plant is expected to be online by 2028 and will target 50 megawatts or more of power generation after a year-long ramp-up period, it said. One megawatt can power up to about 1,000 US homes on a typical day.
“Fifty megawatts is a great first step toward commercial-scale fusion, and the proceeds will go directly into the development of additional power plants and bring fusion online as quickly as possible, both in the United States and internationally,” said David Kirtley, Washington said the founder and CEO of the state-owned Helion in an interview.
Polaris, Helion’s seventh-generation machine, is scheduled to come online next year and demonstrate power generation using high-power pulsed magnet technologies to achieve fusion, Kirtley said. In 2021, Helion became the first private company to reach 100 million degrees Celsius (180 million degrees Fahrenheit), and the optimal temperature for fusion is about twice that, Kirtley said.
While many fusion companies are looking for tritium, a rare isotope of hydrogen, to power reactions, Helion plans to use helium-3, a rare type of gas used in quantum computing.
Helion has raised more than $570 million in private capital to date, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman raising $375 million in 2021.
Brad Smith, vice chairman and president of Microsoft Corp, said in a press release that Helion’s work “supports our own long-term clean energy goals and will advance the market to establish a new, efficient way to bring more clean energy into the world.” Net.” Faster.”
The companies did not disclose the financial or timing details of the power purchase agreement or which Microsoft facilities would purchase merger power.
Kimberly Budil, director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which experiments with fusion, said last December that a few decades of research and investment could enable scientists to build a power plant.
Helion is subject to Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) design and construction approvals as well as local permits. But the fusion industry rejoiced at the NRC’s decision last month to separate fusion regulation from nuclear fission, a move proponents say could shorten license approval deadlines.
Andrew Holland, chairman of the Fusion Industry Association, said nuclear fusion was not easy and the power purchase agreement likely contained clauses about the timing of power delivery. But he said the deal shows trust is building.
“The business world is beginning to realize that merger is coming, maybe sooner than many people thought,” Holland said in an interview. “It’s a vote of confidence that Helion is on the way, as are other companies that are now building their proof-of-concept machines.”
Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Edited by Jacqueline Wong
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