Helion Fusion Reaches 150M Degrees
Bay Area fusion startup Helion achieved a record 150 million degrees Celsius in its Polaris prototype reactor, representing three-quarters of the temperature needed for commercial fusion power. The company, which raised $425 million in 2022 from backers including Sam Altman, is targeting electricity delivery to Microsoft by 2028 using its direct magnetic field generation method.
- Helion's Polaris prototype is the seventh generation of their fusion devices; the previous version, "Trenta," was the first privately-funded machine to exceed 100 million degrees Celsius, a key benchmark for commercial fusion. - The company's technology, known as magneto-inertial fusion, uses magnetic fields to compress a plasma to fusion conditions in short pulses, a different approach from the more common donut-shaped tokamak reactors. - A key feature of Helion's approach is direct energy conversion, which captures electricity as the plasma expands against a magnetic field, avoiding the need for steam turbines and cooling towers used in traditional power plants. - While the record temperature was achieved using deuterium-tritium fuel, Helion's commercial power plants are planned to use a deuterium and helium-3 fuel cycle. - The power purchase agreement with Microsoft, the first of its kind for fusion energy, calls for Helion to supply at least 50 megawatts of electricity by 2028. - Construction has begun on Helion's first commercial power plant, named Orion, in Malaga, Washington, to fulfill the Microsoft agreement. - OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is a major financial backer and the executive chairman of Helion, having invested $375 million in the company. - Beyond Microsoft, Helion has also partnered with Nucor, the largest U.S. steel producer, to develop a 500-megawatt fusion power plant at one of Nucor's steel mills.
