General Fusion - Magnetized Target Fusion got C$13.9 million

nextbigfuture · Post by **nextbigfuture** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 5:45 pm

Canadian government has funded General Fusion for C$13.9 million over 4 years. Likely private funds were raised as well. General Fusion could have nearly all the funding needed to make a full size reactor and then its net energy version based on prior cost estimates.

http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/06/genera ... llion.html

General Fusion is using the MTF (Magnetized Target Fusion) approach but with a new, patent pending and cost-effective compression system to collapse the plasma. They describe the injectors at the top and bottom of the above image in the new research paper. The goal is to build small fusion reactors that can produce around 100 megawatts of power. The company claims plants would cost around US$50 million, allowing them to generate electricity at about four cents per kilowatt hour.

If there are no funding delays, then in 2010-2011 for completion of the tests and work for an almost full scale version (2 meters instead of 3 meter diameter). [Prior estimates were for $10 million for this phase]

The third phase for General Fusion is to raise $50 million for a net energy gain device with a target date of 2013 if the second/third phase are roughly on schedule. [The canadian government funding and private funding could take General Fusion all the way through the third phase]

$500 million to start make commercial plants

chrismb · Post by **chrismb** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 6:19 pm

I noticed the patent communications the other day while on the USPTO website. It's not been going very well (these last 4 years they've been trying). They're still struggling to convince the examiner they've got something patentable, in respect of fusion energy, and looks like it has been moved to a more mundane 'plasma' category of invention, to stand a chance of being granted.

Actually, I quite like this idea. The notion of mechanically compressing a plasma, and hence its magentic structure, into a space is original and so is blessed with the essence of 'the unknown' that many conceivable outcomes are possible and not yet excluded.