Fusion/Fusion-Fission Hybrids

Construction of the nuclear fission-fusion hybrid reactor is under construction, with start-up scheduled in 2020. A molten salt blanket will capture neutrons produced in a small tokamak fusion reactor to drive a fission reaction that relies on the thorium fuel cycle.

First Light Fusion's approach involves the assymmetric implosion of deuterium-tritium fuel, resulting in a unique plasma geometry.

Helion is developing a 50 MWe-scale field-reversed configuration fusion system in which deuterium-helium 3 plasmas are injected into opposite sides of a linear reaction chamber and accelerated into a "burn chamber" at over 100 million mph, where strong magnetic fields compress the merged plasmas to fusion conditions. Unlike its leading private fusion vendor competitors, Helion is pursuing direct energy conversion for its first-of-a-kind "Fusion Engines".

This spheromak-type system employs proprietary imposed-dynamo current drive (IDCD) to sustain compact, steady-state plasmas.

The HyperJet Fusion reactor is spherically-shaped magneto-inertial confinement device with a shot rate of approximately 1 Hz. Fusion conditions are achieved within the magnetized tritium-deuterium plasma fuel through the implosion of a high-Z plasma liner.

A form of alternative magneto-inertial fusion utilizing deuterium-tritium fuel. Described by the company as "beam-target" fusion, the proposed technology involves a solid Lithium BoroTritide target and magnetic focusing lenses for the deuterium and helium-3 ion beam.

CFS plans to engineer Rare-Earth Barium Copper Oxide (REBCO), a new superconductor technology, into high-field magnets, which enables much smaller tokamak fusion systems.

An alternative approach to deuterium-tritium fusion combining cusp confinement and magnetic mirrors in a "truckbed-sized" reactor.

TAE's "Friendly Fusion" technology is a hydrogen-boron fusion system employing advanced beam-driven field reversed configuration (FRC) technology. TAE's fifth-generation prototype machine, nicknamed "Norman", achieved the colliding and merging of FRC in 2018.