Pacific Fusion breaks ground on New Mexico facility to achieve net facility gain by 2030

New Facility for Fusion Power

Pacific Fusion has broken ground on a new facility in New Mexico. This facility is designed to achieve net facility gain, meaning it will produce as much energy as it consumes, a key step toward commercial fusion power. The company plans to operate a commercial power plant by the mid-2030s.

Achieving Net Facility Gain

While fusion power startups have made progress, no experiment or device has yet achieved net facility gain. The National Ignition Facility has demonstrated controlled fusion reactions generating more energy than they consume, but not enough to power the facility itself. Pacific Fusion aims to reach this milestone by 2030.

Fusion Technology Approach

The Albuquerque facility will test Pacific Fusion's fusion method, which involves using intense, coordinated pulses of electricity. These pulses create a magnetic field around a fuel target, compressing it until the fuel atoms fuse. The demonstration facility will be capable of firing a few "shots" per day, with a full-size power plant requiring one shot per second.

Pulser Module Technology

The electricity pulses will be generated by 156 pulser modules. Each module contains 32 circular stages, each made of 10 bricks. Each brick consists of two capacitors for power storage and one switch for release. Pacific Fusion previously tested a one-third-scale pulser module, which released 440 gigawatts of peak power in 80 nanoseconds, validating the design for the new facility.

National Security Applications

In addition to demonstrating net facility gain, the new campus will also conduct national security-related experiments involving high-yield fusion. This research is similar to work done at other U.S. government sites, such as the National Ignition Facility. Each pulse from the new demonstration system will generate approximately 100 megajoules.