Start-up receives $20m to develop laser fusion as a low-radiation nuclear energy source

An Australian laser fusion energy start-up has landed it second $20m project in recent months to develop a fusion recycling plant.

HB11 co-founder Dr Warren McKenzie and professor Henrich Hora in their laser fusion research laboratory.

A laser fusion energy start-up has landed its second $20m project in recent months to further develop a fusion recycling plant.

HB11, co-founded by Warren McKenzie, landed the project with a $6m contribution from Deakin University under a trailblazer program, as well as $14m from partners.

The new project is the second of this size the laser fusion start-up has landed this year, the first of which came from the same program and was granted from the University of Adelaide and UNSW.

The new project will see HB11’s build “the largest recycling and clean energy advanced manufacturing ecosystem in Australia” for Deakin University.

The core idea behind HB11 is the development of laser fusion energy, a process Dr McKenzie describes as “taking two small atoms and putting them together, in contrast to fission, where you take one big atom and split it in half”.

Dr McKenzie believes this form of nuclear energy is the only kind that will last a century.

“Laser fusion using boron is probably the only energy source that is going to last us more than 100 years. The problem is we haven’t quite got it to work yet,” he said.

While most companies were working to develop hydrogen or isotopes of hydrogen, HB11 chose boron as “it is one of the few ­nuclear reactions that use a fuel that’s completely safe”, he said.

“The main principle of nuclear energy is it allows you to use fuels and get an enormous amount of energy out of them. In contrast to fission, which is the nuclear energy that we’re used to today, ­fusion relatively speaking emits less radiation.”

Earlier this year the start-up reached a milestone when it demonstrated a “material” number of fusion reactions via non-thermal fusion of hydrogen and boron 11 using high-powered lasers.