Dr. Peter O'shea

Dr. Peter O’Shea

TRIUMF Saturday Morning Public Lecture - CONFIDENTIALNovember 18, 2017 Introduction to General Fusion

• Founded in 2002 by Michel Laberge ( UBC PhD Physics 1990, Laser Fusion ) • Privately backed by investors including Jeff Bezos and Khazanah Nasional Berhad (Malaysian Sovereign Wealth Fund) • 75 employees, $100M+ in funding ( Many UBC Alumni, especially Eng. Physics ) • Focused on building a practical, commercially viable fusion power plant

2 Why develop a new type of power plant?

Fuel shares in world total primary energy supply (2015)

80% of the world’s energy still comes from fossil fuels.1

Electricity is the world’s fastest-growing form of end-use energy consumption.2

$480 billion per year is invested in new power plants.3

Sources: 1 IEA Renewables Information Overview 2017, 2 EIA International Energy Outlook 2017, 3 IEA World Energy Outlook 2017 3 Emissions continue to rise…

New York Times, Nov 6, 2017: Here’s How Far the World Is From Meeting Its Climate Goals 4 Emissions continue to rise…

New York Times, Nov 6, 2017: Here’s How Far the World Is From Meeting Its Climate Goals 5 Electricity demand forecast to increase by 45% by 2040

Source: EIA International Energy Outlook 2017 (IEA WEO 2017 forecasts are similar) 6 Electricity demand forecast to increase by 45% by 2040

Source: EIA International Energy Outlook 2017 (IEA WEO 2017 forecasts are similar) 7 “To meet rising demand, China needs to add the equivalent of today’s United States power system to its electricity infrastructure by 2040.”

“India needs to add a power system the size of today’s European Union.”

IEA World Energy Outlook 2017

8 Total electricity generation by region 2016-2040

Source: IEA World Energy Outlook 2017 9 Fusion: Zero emission, on-demand electricity that is plentiful and safe

Clean: No GHG emissions

Safe: Meltdown impossible and no long lived waste

Abundant: Fuel derived from sea water, millions of years worth available

On-Demand: Able to provide baseload power around the clock

Cost-competitive: Effectively zero fuel cost, high density energy

10 How does fusion work?

11 Approaches to fusion

Magnetic Magnetized Inertial Confinement Target Fusion Confinement

All Confinement Balanced All Compression

Plasma confinement using Combination of compression Very fast compression using large magnetic coils and magnetic confinement high power lasers or ion beams

Low density: Medium density: Extreme density:

~1014 ions/cm3 ~1020 ions/cm3 ~1026 ions/cm3

Continuous operation Pulsed: ~10 µs Pulsed: <1 ns

(ITER) (General Fusion) (NIF)

Magnetic confinement fusion

Image Credit: Matthias W Hirsch / Wikipedia

14 Magnetic confinement fusion - ITER

ITER tokamak under construction (2016)

CAD render of the ITER tokamak Image Credit: ITER (all)

15 Magnetic confinement fusion - ITER

ITER tokamak under construction (2016)

First Plasma ~2025

CAD render of the ITER tokamak Image Credit: ITER (all)

16 Approaches to fusion

Magnetic Magnetized Inertial Confinement Target Fusion Confinement

All Confinement Balanced All Compression

Plasma confinement using Combination of compression Very fast compression using large magnetic coils and magnetic confinement high power lasers or ion beams

Low density: Medium density: Extreme density:

~1014 ions/cm3 ~1020 ions/cm3 ~1026 ions/cm3

Continuous operation Pulsed: ~10 µs Pulsed: <1 ns

(ITER) (General Fusion) (NIF)

17 Inertial Confinement Fusion National Ignition Facility

NIF laser bay

NIF fusion target NIF facility layout

Image Credit: LLNL / NIF (all)

18 Inertial Confinement Fusion National Ignition Facility

NIF laser bay

NIF fusion target NIF facility layout

Image Credit: LLNL / NIF (all)

19 Approaches to fusion

Magnetic Magnetized Inertial Confinement Target Fusion Confinement

All Confinement Balanced All Compression

Plasma confinement using Combination of compression Very fast compression using large magnetic coils and magnetic confinement high power lasers or ion beams

Low density: Medium density: Extreme density:

~1014 ions/cm3 ~1020 ions/cm3 ~1026 ions/cm3

Continuous operation Pulsed: ~10 µs Pulsed: <1 ns

(ITER) (General Fusion) (NIF)

20 Fusion Technology Comparison

Magnetic Field (Tesla) Normal Super- Max Flux Plasma Energy conductor HTC Max DC Compression Driver Power 1 30 1.00E+3 3.00E+4 1.00E+6 1.00E+11 1.00E+15 NIF ITER

GJ TW 1.00E+08 1.00E+12

GF MJ GW

1.00E+05 1.00E+09 of $ Cost Driver $ of $ Cost Confinement

kJ MW 1.00E+02 1.00E+06 1.00E+13 1.00E+16 1.00E+19 1.00E+22 1.00E+25

Plasma Density (cm-3) 21 Magnetized Target Fusion

1. Form a compact torus of plasma

2. Confine in conductive chamber

3. Compress and heat to fusion conditions

4. Repeat

22 Introduction to General Fusion • Pursuing Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) approach: liner compression of plasma • Derived from LINUS concept at US Naval Research Laboratories in 1970s • Recognized as a low cost and practical solution to major fusion challenges • Energy conversion • Materials degradation • Fuel production

LINUS concept (1976)

23 General Fusion’s Concept

1. Plasma Injection • Spherical Tokamak Target • Formed by Coaxial Helicity Injection (CHI) • No External Coils • Metal Flux Conserver Only • Can’t run steady state • No energy sustainment • Initial plasma conditions (pre-compression) • Temperature: 400 eV • Density: 2x1020 m-3 • Initial β: 4%

24 General Fusion’s Concept

2. Plasma Compression • Array of Pistons Coupled to Liquid Liner (~10 GW aux heating from compression work) • Array of Pistons Moves the Wall Inward, Compressing Plasma ~10:1 Radially • ~20ms compression time • Cycle Repeats at ~1Hz • Work from the pistons 300 MJ

25 General Fusion’s Concept

26 General Fusion’s Concept

27 General Fusion’s Concept

3. Plasma Compression • Final plasma conditions (post-compression) • Temperature: 20 keV • Density: 2x1023 m-3 • β: 20% • Time at peak compression: 1 ms • DT Yield: 1 GJ Gain: 3.3 • ~80% direct compression energy recovery from rebound • Liquid Metal Liner serves as: • heat capture mechanism • Fuel production (lithium to tritium) • Structural protection

28 MTF removes the traditional barriers to commercial fusion

Plasma Materials Energy Conversion

Pulsed process eliminates need for Compression of plasma with liquid metal Energy conversion using existing complex and costly: avoids: technology:

• Long confinement • Structural materials degradation • Proven liquid metal heat exchanger

• Complex plasma heating systems • High-speed laser compression • Conventional steam turbine/generator

• Consumable fuel targets • Problem of insufficient tritium creation • Efficient compression drivers (pistons)

A uniquely practical solution to the challenges of fusion

29 Component Level Development

Plasma Formation Liquid Metal Systems Plasma Compression

30 Consistently advancing towards commercialization

2014 2017E Small Plasma Injector PI3 large injector program achieved fully assembled, World Record operations begin Spheromak Thermal 2010 2011 Confinement (lifetime) Full spherical World’s largest Full scale piston 2017 sub-scale model plasma injector proof of concept SPECTOR small of prototype constructed (PI1) for servo control 2013 2015 injector achieved 5 cavity formation (timing) million ⁰C plasma system 2011 Small Plasma 12th plasma temperature, with constructed Injector program compression test broke Full scale plasma lifetime achieved threshold of 400% piston operated exceeding 2 ms for 1,000,000⁰C improvement in 2010 with liquid the first time plasma performance since start PI1 achieved metal 2012 temperature 2016 plasma density 14 piston of program SPECTOR small goal sphere operated with injector achieved liquid metal 3 million ⁰C cavity plasma temperature with 1.5 ms plasma lifetime

31 Plasma formation

World’s biggest and most powerful plasma injectors

Plasma Injector 500 eV pre-compression plasma with life-time >2,000 microseconds Developed and operated 18 generations of injectors since 2010 Library of over 150,000 plasma experiments

Plasma Performance - Lifetime in Microseconds PI3 Prototype-Scale Plasma Injector 10,000

2,700 Performance Threshold for Fusion Conditions 800 1,400 400 40 100

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Today PI3

32 Small plasma injectors

• Built on a reduced scale to reduce iteration time and expense • Allow a variety of geometries and overall safety factor (q) to be explored • 15 small injectors built so far • SPECTOR has achieved 500 eV, lifespan >2,000 μs

~30cm

MrT : Magnetic PROSPECTOR SPECTOR SPECTOR in lab with diagnostics Ring Test Spherical Compact Toroid SPECTOR injector

33 Plasma Lifetime Progress

General Fusion has created a long-lived plasma that we believe is good enough to compress.

Time Compression

Tesla Dec 2013 1.5 October 2015 100 µs thermal life Self-heating to >300 eV

1.0

Poloidal Field Poloidal 0.5

0 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 Sept 2012 May 2013 Feb 2014 µs 34 34 Spherical tokamak: 500 eV measured by Thomson Scattering

2017 • 2500 μs lifetimes • 500 eV

35 Large plasma injectors

• Injectors built to a similar scale as expected for power plant • Pi1 and Pi2 demonstrated magnetic compression heating of a spheromak to over 300 eV and 3.2T magnetic fields • Pi3 first plasma expected end of 2017

Pi1 Pi2 Pi3

36 Pi3 large injector

• Spherical tokamak plasma target • Major radius: 0.6-0.7 m

• Temperature Telectron ~ Tion: 100-500 eV • Plasma lifespan: 50 ms • 10 MJ capacitor bank

37 Plasma compression

• Mechanical compression of magnetized plasma • Major advances in plasma systems, materials, coatings, and diagnostics • Recent experiments show good magnetic stability

38 Compression technology

• Compression of 400°C liquid lithium liner with pistons • Demonstrated synchronization accuracy of +/-2 μs with frictionless servo • Cavity formation and stabilization

Compression Driver Control System Performance

39 Big Data

General Fusion has conducted >150,000 plasma shots to date

Each shot generates ~1 Gb of data

Partnering with Microsoft to create new analysis tools and share data with the scientific community

Aurora project – plasma data in the cloud

Big data + machine learning

40 Additive Manufacturing

Addition Manufacturing = industrial scale 3D printing

Ability to create shapes not possible before

Important applications in stabilizing liquid metal wall

41 Pre-Commercial demonstration program goals

Goals (Preliminary): 1. Demonstrate, at power plant scale, at 8:1 compression: 10 keV, 2x1016 cm-3, 500 μs (sub breakeven) can be achieved using General Fusion’s MTF technology 2. Refine, based on actual performance, the economics of a full-scale General Fusion commercial power plant 3. Upgradable with more capacitors to higher density

An equivalent scale machine to MIT’s Alcator C-Mod tokamak or the Wendelstein 7-X in Germany

Scale and PerformancePower plant Comparable-scale demonstration to Largest …Nationaltransition Programs to commercialization (e.g. NSTX), at 10% of Cost 42 Program development activities underway

Sensors & Diagnostics Large Scale Plasma Formation MTF Simulation Codes

Liquid Metal Systems Cavity Formation & Compression Compression Pistons & Fast Valves

43 Summary

• The increase in demand for energy worldwide cannot be met by existing renewable sources.

• Fusion energy can transform the way the world is energized.

• Newly matured enabling technologies are now opening innovative new pathways to commercial fusion energy.

• General Fusion a big player in a growing ecosystem of private fusion companies emerging worldwide.

• Combining new technologies, proven industrial processes, and advances in fundamental fusion science, General Fusion’s solution is the closest to commercial reality.

• General Fusion’s unique architecture removes the traditional barriers to practical fusion.

44 In The Media

45 Twitter Instagram LinkedIn @generalfusion @generalfusion general-fusion 46