CSU and Marvel Fusion to Build $150M Facility

Colorado State University (CSU) and Marvel Fusion have partnered to build a $150 million laser facility to enable research into inertial fusion energy and high energy density physics. The public-private partnership will see the facility constructed on the CSU Foothills Campus pending finalization of financial details by the CSU system board of governors.

Targeted for completion in 2026, the project is planned to feature at least three laser systems, each with a multi-petawatt peak power and an ultrafast repetition rate of 10 flashes per second. The flagship facility will be designed to accommodate expansion and additional lasers in the future. The selected site for the new laser facility is near CSU’s existing Advanced Beam Laboratory, built in 2013.

High-density laser-created plasma physics research is conducted at Colorado State University’s Laboratory for Advanced Lasers and Extreme Photonics. A partnership with Marvel Fusion will expand CSU’s laser research facilities. Courtesy of CSU Photography.

Munich, Germany-based Marvel Fusion is advancing a proton-boron fusion approach. The company has developed a short-pulsed laser technology with direct diode pumping. The company’s approach leverages peak power laser output beyond 10 PW, relying on its diode technology to ensure its lasers can deliver pulse repetition rates up to 10 Hz.

CSU and Marvel Fusion unveiled plans for the Colorado facility eight months after Marvel partnered with Thales and the ELI-NP (Extreme Light Infrastructure - Nuclear Physics) in Romania to upgrade the laser system and to perform research.

CSU is a member of LaserNetUS, which last week received $28.5 million from the Department of Energy’s Office of Science to advance discovery science and inertial fusion energy. CSU itself has received $12.5 million in additional funding from the Department of Energy for laser upgrade prototyping and increased LaserNetUS support.