Focused Energy and Amplitude Strike Partnership Agreement

Laser fusion company Focused Energy has partnered with Amplitude, a developer of ultrafast lasers, to advance two laser systems beyond the current state-of-the-art for inertial fusion energy, according to the companies. The technology around which the partnership centers will help develop and determine the laser parameters ultimately needed to commercialize Focused Energy’s direct drive laser fusion approach.

The beamlines established through the collaboration will be installed at Focused Energy’s planned $65 million Laser Development Facility in the San Francisco Bay Area, as announced in October.

Focused Energy's scientists and engineers plan to use the laser systems to test and optimize laser performance and fusion target design to meet key milestones in their technology risk reduction program for inertial fusion energy. The kilojoule-class lasers are designed to test the physics needed for efficient direct-drive compression of deuterium-tritium fusion fuel targets. They will operate at enhanced repetition rates of one shot every 60 s, enabling rapid design iteration.

According to Focused Energy, the planned Laser Development Facility complements its fuel targetry lab in Darmstadt, Germany, where the company is developing low-cost, millimeter-scale deuterium-tritium fuel targets. Focused Energy plans to combine its laser and target technology in an engineering facility that will integrate, test, and optimize all of the prerequisite technologies for a commercial-scale fusion pilot plant capable of net energy gain. Once commercial fusion is reached, three soda cans worth of deuterium-tritium fusion fuel will be able to power a city the size of San Francisco for a day, the company said.

Focused Energy has raised more than $175 million in private capital and public grant funding. It is one of eight fusion companies selected by the U.S. Department of Energy for funding under the Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program. In September, the company was announced as the leader of a project funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research to develop a laser-driven neutron source from individual components developed by the project partners and demonstrate how it can be used for the nondestructive examination of nuclear waste containers.