A Future for Fusion - Realta Fusion's Magnetic Bottle

Realta Fusion spun out from an ARPA-E-funded project at the University of Wisconsin and is actively developing fusion energy technology to confine plasma using magnetic mirrors to create and sustain a fusion reaction.

Realta Fusion's innovative approach is shared by ARPA-E Program Director Dr. Ahmed Diallo, Realta Fusion CEO Kieran Furlong, and University of Wisconsin professor & Realta Fusion CTO, Dr. Cary Forest. Fusion technology is based on two mirror coils constructed using high temperature superconducting material. Hot and high-density target plasmas will be created using high‑frequency electron-cyclotron heating from modern gyrotrons. Fast, sloshing ions will be created and energized by a novel radio-frequency heating scenario in which neutral beam injection is used to fuel ions, which are then accelerated in situ to high energy by high harmonic fast waves. The ARPA-E project aims to demonstrate a novel “end cell” that confines stable, heated plasmas at the end of 24 months. When successful, electron temperatures will exceed 1 keV and a fusion triple product in the end cell exceeding 10^18 keV s/m3.

Advances in the stability and confinement of the mirror fusion concept, innovative plasma heating, and high-field superconducting magnets are underway. Realta Fusion continues the development efforts towards a low-cost and modular fusion device to commercialize and decarbonize fusion powered industrial heat and power with the HTS Axisymmetric Magnetic Mirror Reactor (HAMMiR), which would use two of the end cells at either end of a longer central mirror cell to pursue breakeven conditions and generate thermal energy.