First Light Fusion fires up pulsed power machine for debut test

Known as Machine 3, the pulsed power device will eventually be capable of discharging 200,000 volts and in excess of 14 million amperes within two microseconds. The ‘shot’, which is equivalent to around 500 simultaneous lightning strikes, will fire a projectile at a small target containing a tiny amount of fuel, collapsing a cavity in a process known as inertial confinement and superheating plasma to achieve fusion. Though all six identical arms of Machine 3 will be needed to generate the power required for fusion, the first of these has now been successfully commissioned, with the device expected to be completed by the end of 2018.

“These were test shots but are very important nevertheless because they were the first ‘end-to-end’ tests of Machine 3,” said Nicholas Hawker, founder and CEO of First Light. “The successful outcome de-risks the rest of the project because it was based on one of the six limbs of the device. The other five limbs are exact replicas of the one we tested.