Helion makes big bet on ‘Tiny Merge’ fusion testbed to meet aggressive Microsoft timeline- Lisa Stiffler, Geekwire, May 8
With just three years left on a hard deadline to prove its fusion approach works, Helion Energy is still wrestling with fundamental questions — and it’s building a new, smaller machine to help find answers faster.
Since launching more than a decade ago, Helion has built increasingly larger prototype devices to test and refine its fusion technology as it races to deliver a source of nearly limitless clean energy. But by 2028, Helion is contractually obligated to have a commercial facility producing energy from fusion reactions, essentially replicating the physics that power the sun.
So now it’s going small.
The company is building a downsized testbed device called “Tiny Merge,” a machine less than one-eighth the size of Polaris, its seventh-generation and final prototype. The decision reflects the reality that key issues remain that Helion’s larger, more expensive prototypes haven’t fully resolved. These concerns must be addressed before final designs for a power plant can be locked in.
“With this agile testbed, we will be able to test new ideas with much less energy and far fewer resource requirements, meaning we can iterate faster than we can on full-scale machines such as Polaris,” said Michael Hua, Helion’s senior director of radiation safety and nuclear science.
Read the full article to learn more about Tiny Merge.