The School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering Seminar Series, “Introducing Helion Energy and the HERCULES Program” Presented by Drs. Michael Hua & Cecile Mejean

About the event

Introducing Helion Energy and the HERCULES Program

Presented by Dr. Michael Hua, Director of Nuclear Science, Helion Energy

Abstract:

Helion Energy is a private fusion energy company founded in 2013 and headquartered in Everett, Washington. To date, Helion has built seven fusion generator prototypes and was the first private fusion company to achieve fusion-relevant ion temperatures of 100 million °C (9 keV). Helion has also signed fusion’s first power purchase agreement to deliver 50 MW of electricity to Microsoft Corporation, as well as an agreement to develop a 500 MW fusion power plant at a Nucor steel manufacturing facility. These plans to commercialize fusion power motivate research and development of technologies that accelerate the technical breakthroughs required to scale fusion energy.

Helion’s approach is based on forming and merging plasmas in a field-reversed configuration (FRC). FRCs are high-beta plasmas, meaning the ratio of plasma pressure to magnetic pressure is near unity. Operating FRCs in a pulsed mode and allowing them to expand against the imposed magnetic field enables efficient direct conversion of charged-particle fusion energy into electricity. In addition, more than 95% of the input energy can be recovered, reducing the fusion yield required to generate fusion electricity for commercial use. This direct energy recovery approach also enables the use of fuels such as DHe-3, in which the fusion products are primarily charged particles and the neutron production is reduced and less energetic than in traditional DT fusion on a per-megawatt basis.

This presentation introduces Helion and the newly announced HERCULES program (Helion External Research Collaboration for Universities, Labs, and Enterprise Scientists). Through HERCULES, Helion provides funding to external collaborators to conduct research relevant to improving future Helion generators and commercial viability. The presentation summarizes ongoing projects and introduces the current call for proposals, with topic areas spanning diagnostics, fuel cycle, materials science, plasma physics, and more.