Adelaide laser fusion firm closing in on energy ‘dream’

An Adelaide company’s work into fusion power using lasers has the theoretical potential to provide limitless cheap electricity free of harmful radiation.

HB11 scientists (from left) Dr Warren McKenzie and Professor Henrich Hora in their laser fusion research laboratory. Picture: Supplied

Ninety years after Mark Oliphant first experimentally demonstrated nuclear fusion and split the atom, Australia is back in the ­global lead on a technology that could literally change the world.

In terms of bang for buck, a $22m investment that has been approved to build a high-powered laser in Adelaide may prove to be the best energy investment the nation has made.

Small fusion company HB11 Energy, that represents the lifework of University of NSW scientist Heinrich Hora, has achieved stunning results from tests conducted in Japan.

The new investment in laser technology as part of a “moonshot” energy program will bring the research home to the University of Adelaide.

HB11 Energy’s fusion power has the theoretical potential to provide limitless cheap electricity free of harmful radiation.

Billions have been spent researching other thermal nuclear fusion technologies that even supporters have joked are always 30 years into the future. But ­advances in laser technology, enough to win a Nobel prize, and a novel approach theorised by Professor Hora, are bearing fruit.

HB11 Energy has set the goal of producing safe, reliable, unlimited electricity, generated by small nuclear fusion reactors that use abundant fuels with little or no harmful waste. It does this by using laser technology to fuse hydrogen and boron-11. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, while boron-11 com­prises 80 per cent of all boron found in nature, is readily available and is a stable, non-radioactive isotope.

Unlike other nuclear and fossil fuel-burning plants, HB11 Energy’s energy-generating process does not require large plants. Energy is released in the form of charged particles and can directly be converted to electricity without the need for steam turbines. There’s no risk of a reactor meltdown and the energy generated can be ­directed straight to the grid or electricity-intensive industries such as aluminium or hydrogen production.

The HB11 technology avoids one of the great challenges of ­fusion: the need to contain the tremendous heat generated by a fusion reaction.

The other obstacle has been deploying sufficient initial energy to make the reaction self-supporting.

No one has yet achieved a net energy gain but the published ­results of the HB11 tests have been orders of magnitude higher than the competition.

HB11 Energy’s research demonstrated its hydrogen-boron ­energy technology is now four ­orders of magnitude away from achieving net energy gain when catalysed by a laser.

The company said this was “many orders of magnitude higher than those reported by any other fusion company, most of which have not generated any reactions despite billions of dollars invested in the field”.

The small HB11 company has been expanding rapidly. It has the backing of famous German entrepreneur and investor Lukasz Gadowski, who now sits on the board, as well as scientists at the forefront of nuclear fusion ­research and development.

“Since the discovery of lasers in 1960, the pursuit of hydrogen boron-11 fusion has been my dream,” Professor Hora said. “Despite much scepticism over 60 years of research, this dream has come true at a time when its potential as a new source of unlimited, clean, safe and reliable energy is needed more than ever.”

The company has been awarded a $22m project to develop the next-generation high-powered lasers needed to create a multibillion-dollar nuclear fusion energy industry from Australia, and export this capability to the world.

The HB11 Energy project forms part of a $50m Trailblazer grant awarded to the University of Adelaide and University of NSW under the “Defence Trailblazer for Concept to Sovereign Capability” bid. It comprises about a $6m grant and $16m in contributions from partners.

HB11 Energy will assist with the proof-of-concept and development of new petawatt laser technology that is suited to generating hydrogen-boron fusion.

HB11 says the project supports a key element of its technology road map towards creating clean, safe, and reliable energy at better prices, and in greater abundance than all existing renewable ­energy sources combined.

The $22m project is of critical importance not just to HB11 ­Energy, but all industries and companies working on technologies dependent on high-powered ­lasers: biomedical engineering, quantum computing, semiconductor manufacturing, and proton and related medical therapies.

HB11 founder and managing director Warren McKenzie said; “The nuclear fusion energy industry alone could create billions in economic value for Australia, as long as we continue to see significant investment from Australian investors and governments, to ensure the intellectual property is developed and owned here.”

Professor Tom Mehlhorn, former superintendent of the Plasma Physics Division of the US Naval Research Laboratories, says the HB11 results have been significant.

“HB11 Energy’s recent result (in Japan) is iconic as it is the first time a commercial entity has demonstrated a meaningful ­fusion reaction using this ­approach.”