CONFIDENTIAL

Michel Laberge

EPR 2017

2

3

Fusion Technology Comparison

1.00E+06

1.00E+09

1.00E+12

1.00E+15

1.00E+13 1.00E+16 1.00E+19 1.00E+22 1.00E+25

1.00E+02

1.00E+05

1.00E+08

1.00E+11

Driver PowerPlasma Energy

kJ

MJ

GJ

MW

GW

TW

$ C

ost

of

Co

nfi

nem

ent

$ C

ost

of

Dri

ver

NIF

GF

Plasma Density (cm-3)

Magnetic Field (Tesla)

30 1.00E+3 3.00E+4 1.00E+6

Normal

Super-

conductor HTC Max DC

Max Flux

Compression

ITER

1

4

General Fusion’s Solution

1. Inject Plasma Fuel 2. Compress Plasma Fuel

v v

3. Extract Energy

v

5

Small Plasma Injector

• Direct formation: no acceleration

stage.

• Comparable to CTX and SSPX

designs

• Lower maximum plasma density

than large injectors

• Faster design iteration

• Designed for use in plasma

compression experiments

6

Plasma Lifetime Progress

6

0.5

1.0

1.5

0

Polo

idal F

ield

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200

µsSept 2012 May 2013

Dec 2013

Feb 2014

October 2015

100 µs thermal life

Self-heating to >300 eV

Co

mp

ressio

nTim

e

Tesla

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

7

Spherical tokamak 500 eV from TS

2017

• 2500 μs

lifetimes

• 500 eV

8

Plasma Compression Testing

9

Diagnostics

10

Fixed Radiation Death

• Changed from Ti coating to

Li coating. Lower Z. Less

brittle coating

• Put a vacuum gap between

the driver and the liner.

Shockless acceleration of

the liner

11

Poloidal Field Compression: Compression Test #12

Chart of increase in magnetic field during compression

12

Uncompressed (blue) compared to compressed (red)

13

Change in Compression Geometry

14

New Spherical Shape

15

Magnetic Field During Compression

16

Shaft Current And Formation Current

17

X-Ray and Density

18

Conclusion

• We can make plasma with sufficient confinement before compression

• Radiation losses have been fixed and plasma stability is now maintained during compression

• There is some evidence of heating during compression in experiments so far

• Now aiming to get better heating and higher temperatures in future shots

19

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