Oxfordshire fusion company achieves 'experimental milestone'

Yarnton-based First Light Fusion, in collaboration with the University of Oxford’s Department of Engineering Science, conducted a successful experiment at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France.

They investigated the formation and movement of shock waves through several of their amplifiers, which are vital to the company's unique approach to inertial fusion.

They concentrate the energy from a projectile, increasing the pressure from the impact to create a fusion reaction.

First Light Fusion scientist Ronan Doherty setting up a target coupled to a single-stage gas launcher at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility’s ID19 beamline (Image: First Light Fusion) The experiment, which was conducted over two days, saw the scientists joined by two summer internship students from Oxford, who were funded by the AMPLIFI Prosperity Partnership.

Francisco Suzuki-Vidal, lead of the Collaborative Experiments Group at First Light Fusion, said: "I am really pleased with the results of this latest collaboration with Oxford University and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility.

"The progress the team made with these experiments is a crucial step in our journey to delivering commercial fusion at scale.

“We look forward to continue working with our academic and industry partners through our Prosperity Partnership AMPLIFI on more ground-breaking research in the future.”

The team employed a single-stage meso-scale gas launcher to shoot aluminium projectiles at speeds of around 800 meters per second into various types of amplifiers.

A technique called ‘X-ray phase contrast imaging’ was then used to capture the dynamics of the shock inside the amplifier and the subsequent shock that exited the amplifier into an attached plastic sample.

The experiment yielded high-quality images of the shock formation and movement, which will be used to validate the performance of First Light’s amplifiers.

This will be done by comparing the results with numerical simulations of the experiment, created with advanced hydrodynamics codes.

The Prosperity Partnership, a collaboration funded by UK Research and Innovation and First Light Fusion, supports research into inertial fusion energy.

First Light Fusion scientist Emilio Escauriza setting up a target coupled to a single-stage gas launcher at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility’s ID19 beamline (Image: First Light Fusion) It aims to promote academic collaboration, provide training opportunities, and ultimately solve the problem of fusion energy.

Alexander Rack, principal scientist of Beamline ID19 at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, said: "These are fantastic experiments exploiting the unique properties of our facilities, i.e. intense hard X-rays to record ultra-slow motion X-ray videos of what happens inside a shock amplifier."

Professor of Engineering Science, Daniel Eakins, added: "It’s exceptionally rewarding to see the techniques we’ve developed successfully applied to freeze shock waves in their tracks.

"Visualising how these waves interact and develop within the amplifier is key to understanding and optimising their behaviour.

"I’m excited to see what other physics the partnership uncovers as we push these experiments to much higher velocity conditions."