The UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S) first invested in Tokamak Energy over a decade ago when fusion energy companies were few and far between. We knew it would be a long haul, but we always believed that momentum would build. So we are delighted to see that there are now multiple companies who between them have raised well over $4 billion, with the last few weeks seeing a flurry of announcements from Helion, Commonwealth Fusion Systems and General Fusion with some very large sums being bandied around. These financings are very welcome news and reinforce the growing perception that fusion energy has moved from the realm of science fiction to that of an engineering problem. In other words there is confidence that time and money and application will deliver a viable source of carbon free energy at some point in the not too distant future.
Of course this is not going to be tomorrow but sometime in the next decade. And the engineering needed to get there is non-trivial. From power electronics and AI systems capable of controlling unstable plasmas through to radiation resistant materials for the inner walls of the reactors, there remains a huge amount of work to be done. Much of it will need to be done in collaboration with government labs and academia, but there will also be massive opportunities for the private sector to be innovative suppliers to the fusion companies. This has the potential to create technology leaders in fields outside fusion, perhaps before fusion itself is realised.
TAE Technologies have already spun out a company TAE Life Sciences, using TAE’s particle accelerator technology to create a compact neutron source that can be used to target boron-doped tumours more accurately. Elsewhere, one of the most interesting enabling technologies is the magnets that confine the plasma and the materials that they use. High temperature superconducting (HTS) materials first emerged in the lab about 40 years ago but have been a wonder material struggling to find a sufficiently attractive application. But the compact tokamak devices being developed by Tokamak Energy and Commonwealth Fusion Systems use HTS magnets and the know how being applied to magnets for fusion is already sparking thoughts of other applications ranging from space propulsion systems to portable MRI scanners that could save lives at the roadside.
At UKI2S we have already invested in two start-ups that are a by product of the race to fusion, in the form of Luffy AI and Qdot Technology. Qdot’s expertise lies in thermal management and they are looking to bring the skills used to design the exhaust system for fusion reactors to bear on current problems such as the charging cycle for EV batteries. Whilst Luffy, whose founders emerged from UKAEA’s Culham site, are developing a neural network that could be transformative in improving robotic and industrial controls.
The word “moonshot” is over-used and is often taken to mean something that is binary in outcome. Win big or lose all your money, in other words. Fusion energy is definitely a big win, no doubt about that. But it is also a moonshot in the sense of the Apollo Space programme, which gave us core aspects of our daily lives in the form of the silicon chip, fly-by-wire and freeze-dried foods, all of which were either direct creations of the programme or massively accelerated by it. Fusion technologies could do the same and give us new capabilities few of us will even have on our horizons. Watch this space.
By Mark White, Investment Director at UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (Future Planet Group)