Thea Energy Inc., a fusion technology company advancing the stellarator for the commercialization of a carbon-free and abundant source of energy, said Sept. 11 that the Department of Energy chose the company for three awards provided through the Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) program.
A stellarator is a machine that uses magnetic fields to confine plasma in the shape of a donut, called a torus.
These awards are sponsored by the Fusion Energy Sciences program office in an effort to gain U.S. leadership in emerging fusion technologies and innovation. Total funding is $6.1 million for 20 projects. The awardees were selected following a peer review process by the INFUSE leadership team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
“These awards are focused on faster processes, improved workflows, and important plasma analysis, ultimately leading to milestone execution,” said David Gates, co-founder and chief technology officer of Thea Energy. “With one award, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory’s first-of-a-kind, high-temperature superconductor inspection equipment will help pave the way for high-fidelity magnet performance predictions with significantly reduced operational overhead.
“With a second award, we will apply artificial intelligence and machine learning to accelerate plasma modeling, where traditional simulations are historically time intensive. In a third award with Columbia University, Thea Energy will further analyze the plasma behavior of Eos, our large-scale stellarator that will de-risk our fusion power plant, Helios.”
Thea Energy will work with Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, which is managed by Princeton University, in two newly funded collaborations on:
- Creating novel workflows for the advancement of high-temperature superconductor-based magnets for Eos. Using Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory’s high-temperature superconductor inspection technology, Thea Energy can characterize the performance of its superconducting wire at low-temperature and in a high-background magnetic field in a continuous fashion.
- Developing quick and accurate AI/ML models for predicting fast particle confinement in fusion power plants. Fast particles carry heat from fusion and must be retained in the plasma to sustain the process. The new tool developed through this work will more efficiently tune the behavior of plasma models with respect to these particles.
Steven Cowley, laboratory director at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, added, “The INFUSE program enables Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory to share leading experts and research with the greater fusion community to accelerate fusion progress.
Thea Energy, the first spin-out of Princeton University and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, continues to be a strong collaborator and key partner as it scales its superconducting magnet technology, while at the same time finalizes its innovative design of a maintainable and dynamically controllable stellarator.”
In addition, Thea Energy will partner with Columbia University on plasma analysis of Eos, where Eos will use a beam of energetic particles injected into the stellarator plasma to initiate fusion. The Columbia team has expertise in this specific area and will simulate beam injection to determine if it drives plasma oscillations, where limiting these oscillations can improve stellarator performance.
Elizabeth Paul, assistant professor of applied physics and applied mathematics at Columbia University, added, “Analysis of plasma characteristics in Thea Energy’s integrated stellarator facility, Eos, is important to predicting its performance and understanding the behavior of energetic particles in future fusion power plants. Columbia has become a key center for learning in the simulation of beam-driven plasma behavior, and we look forward to applying this expertise to a modernized stellarator design based on a simplified magnet architecture.”
