The U.S. Department of Energy has selected Stellarex Inc. for a funding award through the Office of Fusion Energy Science’s Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE). Stellarex will collaborate with Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) in joint R&D in the area of tritium extraction from candidate liquid tritium-breeding materials.
“Stellarex is delighted to be collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy in general, and SRNL in particular,” said Prof. Amitava Bhattacharjee, President and Chief Science Officer of Stellarex.
Tritium Supply and Extraction
The fusion process reacts isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium (D) and tritium (T), at high temperature within a hot plasma. Stellarex plans to generate tritium by using the resulting fusion-generated neutrons to convert lithium in a surrounding breeding blanket. This will address one of the challenges facing the successful development of D-T fusion – the efficient generation and extraction of tritium feedstock from the breeding materials. SRNL and Stellarex will jointly extend existing SRNL expertise in this area with a view to scaling-up the technology and targeting its use in Stellarex’s stellarator reactor program and other configurations.
“SRNL is very excited to work with Stellarex on improving the efficiency of our Direct LiT Electrolysis process and finding the best methods to integrate the technology into their novel stellarator configuration,” said Dr. Christopher Dandeneau, who will serve as the SRNL principal investigator on the project.
Stellarex Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Michael Zarnstorff, who is the Stellarex principal investigator added that, “Our planned R&D with SRNL will extend their process to allow extrapolation to a reactor-grade fusion power plant. We believe this approach will be both simple and highly efficient for tritium extraction from our liquid breeding blanket.”
About Stellarex
Stellarex, Inc. is a fusion energy development company, which includes leading experts from Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University and the international fusion energy community. Stellarex is exploiting the significant advantages of the stellarator approach to fusion, including new developments, with advances in key technology for fusion systems. Founded in 2022, Stellarex is based in Princeton NJ.
