The US Department of Energy has awarded more than $105 million to six projects nationwide, including to TINEX — Target Injector Nexus for Experimental Development — a new initiative that is being led by General Atomics, an American energy and defense corporation, according to a new press release.
General Atomics says that “the TINEX collaboration includes an industrial council of leading inertial fusion power plant companies” that includes 3 Blue Capital portfolio companies — Longview, HB11, and Laser Fusion X. The companies will “guide partners in developing practical solutions to critical industry challenges, such as the fabrication and use of fusion fuel targets—tiny, gas-filled capsules that are delivered into a confinement chamber and struck by high-powered lasers to generate intense heat. In addition, the project will tackle other obstacles that may arise in a full-scale power plant, such as managing debris inside the chamber, mitigating damage to optical systems caused by capsule fragments, improving capsule resilience to high temperatures, and creating tracking sensors to accurately aim lasers at the fast-moving capsules.”
