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First Light achieves world first fusion result, proving unique new target technology
Fusion is the phenomenon which powers the sun. The challenge is to control the complexities involved in replicating this process to produce a clean, abundant but also commercially viable source of power.
First Light is taking a unique projectile fusion approach to solve this challenge, which it believes offers the fastest, simplest and cheapest route to commercial fusion power. This means that instead of using complex and expensive lasers or magnets to generate or maintain the conditions for fusion, First Light's approach compresses the fuel inside a target using a projectile travelling at tremendous speed. The key technology in First Light's approach is the target design, which focuses the energy of the projectile, imploding the fuel to the temperatures and densities needed to make fusion happen.
To deliver this fusion result, First Light used its large two-stage hyper-velocity gas gun to launch a projectile at a target, containing the fusion fuel. The projectile reached a speed of 6.5 km per second before impact. First Light's highly sophisticated target focuses this impact, with the fuel accelerated to over 70 km per second as it implodes, an increase in velocity achieved through our proprietary advanced target design, making it the fastest moving object on earth at that point.
First Light's power plant design involves the target being dropped into the reaction chamber and the projectile launched downwards through the same entrance, so it catches up with and impacts the target at the right moment [see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW4eufacf-8 for visual representation].
The impact is focused and amplified by First Light's advanced target technology, and a pulse of fusion energy is released. That energy is absorbed by the lithium flowing inside the chamber, heating it up. The flowing liquid protects the chamber from the huge energy release, sidestepping some of the most difficult engineering issues in other approaches to fusion. Finally, a heat exchanger transfers the heat of the lithium to water, generating steam that turns a turbine and produces electricity.
First Light's equipment is relatively simple, built in large part from readily available components. First Light believes this approach accelerates the journey towards commercial fusion power as there is a large amount of existing engineering that can be reused to realise its proposed plant design.
With this simpler approach that reuses existing technology, peer reviewed analysis conducted by First Light shows that projectile fusion offers a pathway to a very competitive Levelised Cost Of Energy ("LCOE") of under $50 / MWh, directly competing on cost with renewables. This would make it the most cost competitive source of baseload power.
First Light's approach, centred around the sophistication of its target design, will also enable it to pursue a high value-added consumables business model (i.e. mass manufacture of the targets themselves), where it will partner with power plant operators and become the fuel provider in the form of the targets.
First Light believes this focus not just on the science, but also its future business model, presents another important point of difference, showcasing not just the environmental but also the commercial benefits of First Light's approach to fusion power.
The UK Atomic Energy Authority ("UKAEA"), an executive non-departmental public body sponsored by the UK Government Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy was invited to analyse and validate First Light's fusion results before these were officially made public. The process included independent modelling of the detector configuration and response, review of all calibration data for both types of neutron detector used, review of the processing and statistical analysis of the data, full physical access to all detection equipment for hands-on inspection, and the witnessing of a fusion shot. This work has taken place over a period of over three months and UKAEA is able to confirm there is evidence that First Light has produced neutrons that are consistent with those produced from the fusion of deuterium fuel.
Plans for a "gain" experiment (more energy out than in) are advancing at pace. First Light expects to also partner with existing power producers to develop a pilot plant using its unique fusion approach. First Light is working towards a pilot plant producing ~150 MW of electricity and costing less than $1 billion in the 2030s. First Light is working with UBS Investment Bank to explore strategic options for the next phase of its scientific and commercial development.
Gianluca Pisanello
Chief Operating Officer
+44 (0) 1865 807 670
David James
+44 (0) 20 7567 8000
Sandip Dhillon
Peter Ogden
+44 (0) 7793 858 211
firstlightfusion@powerscourt-group.com
First Light Fusion was spun out from the University of Oxford in 2011 to address the urgent need to decarbonise the global energy system. First Light's inertial confinement approach aims to create the extreme temperatures and pressures required for fusion by compressing a target using a hypervelocity projectile. First Light's approach to fusion energy, which is safe, clean, and virtually limitless, has the potential to transform the world's energy system. Unlike existing nuclear, there is no long-lived waste, no meltdown risk, and raw materials can be found in abundance. First Light's investors include Oxford Science Enterprises (formerly OSI) and IP Group plc.
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UBS AG London Branch is authorised and regulated by the Financial Market Supervisory Authority in Switzerland . It is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and subject to regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority and limited regulation by the Prudential Regulation Authority in the United Kingdom. UBS AG London Branch is acting as financial adviser to First Light Fusion and no one else. In connection with such matters, UBS AG London Branch will not regard any other person as its client, nor will it be responsible to any other person for providing the protections afforded to its clients or for providing advice in relation to such matters, the contents of this Announcement or any other matter referred to herein.
Published in October 2020 in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1780490/First_Light_Fusion_16.jpg