Week 9 of 2025
Three nuclear energy innovation news!
🍩 Proxima Fusion (Germany) unveils "Stellaris," the first integrated commercial fusion power plant concept based on quasi-isodynamic (QI) stellarator designed for continuous operation. This open-source design, detailed in a peer-reviewed publication in Fusion Engineering and Design, builds upon the experience gained from the Wendelstein 7-X facility at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics. The company plans to develop a prototype coil by 2027 and targets a fully operational pilot plant, named Alpha, by 2031.
🧂 Seaborg Technologies (Denmark) raises approximately €27m from existing investors to expand its team in Denmark and Korea. The Compact Molten Salt Reactor (CMSR) runs on low-enriched uranium fuel and a proprietary salt mixture, and is integrated in a floating nuclear power barge. The first operational deployment is expected for the early 2030s.
🚢 Fresh out of stealth, Maritime Fusion (US) announces its objective to develop high-temperature superconducting fusion reactors tailored for defense and commercial shipping applications. The company aims to have a first device online in the early 2030's, focusing on a 25 MWe reactor. Sounds extremely exciting, and the rationale to target a market with lower power and uptime requirements is interesting. Nonetheless, it might be a good time to remind that Helion, part of the 2014 batch of the Y Combinator, hasn't reached break-even fusion yet.
🧱 A team from the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory demonstrates that deuterium fuel can become trapped in the boron-coated graphite walls of tokamak fusion reactors, with carbon impurities significantly increasing this retention. The research further indicates that temperatures over 500°C are necessary to release the trapped fuel. These findings underscore the importance of controlling wall composition to minimize fuel retention and maintain reactor efficiency.
👨🎓 Papers of the week: "STING directly interacts with PAR to promote apoptosis upon acute ionizing radiation-mediated DNA damage", Cell Death & Differentiation (2025).
👉 A protein helps cells self-destruct after radiation damage, which could improve radiation resistance in living organisms.
