Week 50 of 2024

Three (well, four) nuclear energy innovation news!

☀️ EUROfusion appoints Dr. Gianfranco Federici as its new Programme Manager, set to take over in January 2025. His leadership will be crucial in advancing the European fusion roadmap, especially by improving dialogue and collaborations with private entities, both industry and fusion startups. This move is poised to strengthen Europe’s leadership and enhance opportunities for commercialization within the nuclear energy sector.

💵 Acceleron Fusion, Inc. (US) secures a $24 million Series A co-led by Lowercarbon Capital and Collaborative Fund. The funds will be used to advance its muon-catalyzed fusion technology, which operates at temperatures below 1,000°C—significantly cooler than traditional plasma-based fusion methods. Recently, the company achieved a breakthrough with a 28-hour fusion operation using deuterium-tritium fuel under high pressure. A first full-scale prootype is expected to be operational by 2026.

💵 Tokamak Energy (UK) receives a $52 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the UK's Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). It will be used to upgrade the ST40 spherical tokamak, with a focus on optimizing high-temperature superconducting magnet systems and plasma control, leveraging expertise from leading national laboratories.

💵 Proxima Fusion (DE) receives a €6.5 million grant by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to lead the "AI for Fusion Engineering" project. In partnership with the The University of Bonn, Forschungszentrum Jülich, and the Technical University of Munich, the initiative aims to develop AI-driven tools to optimize stellarator fusion power plants. This includes improving the design of HTS magnets, plasma-facing materials, and cooling systems.

👨‍🎓 Paper of the week: "Design and fabrication of TRISO based ZrC fuel for nuclear thermal propulsion", Journal of Nuclear Materials (2024)

👉 Design and preliminary test of a fuel candidate for nuclear rockets.