Conner Galloway and Alexander Valys have been following developments in nuclear fusion research since they were roommates at MIT some 20 years ago. For much of that time, it wasn’t the most exciting pastime: breakthroughs were few and far between, and commercial fusion remained on the horizon, always 20 years away from providing cheap, inexhaustible, pollution-free power.
But in August 2021, the two found some news that showed the power of fusion was finally achieved. Scientists working on a type of nuclear fusion at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) have doubled their previous best results.
Although largely unknown in the popular press, Galloway and Valys knew this was a turning point. “It was one of those pivotal moments. It was like, okay, now is the time,” Valys told TechCrunch.
Spurred into action, Galloway began refining plans for what would become Xcimer Energy, a startup he founded in January 2022. Valys joined him that April, and since then the two have been quietly working with his team to create plans for a joint power plant. which they say has taken the best in providing commercial-scale power.
“The type of inertial fusion that we’re doing has the best long-term economics,” Galloway said.
Xcimer is working on what it calls inertial confinement fusion. This is the same type used by the NIF, which proved in December 2022 that controlled nuclear fusion can produce more power than is needed to start the reaction. In inertial confinement, lasers are fired at tiny fuel pellets, compressing and heating them to the point where deuterium and tritium atoms begin to fuse, releasing enormous amounts of energy in the process.
But Xcimer has embarked on what is best described as a fundamental redesign of its underlying technology.
Starting with the laser: The Xcimer design is newer and promises to be more powerful. If the peak NIF system power is around 2 megajoules, the initial target is 10 megajoules for a commercial scale design. What’s more, the Xcimer design should be cheaper to build and operate. The principle is similar to the type that has been used for years in semiconductor manufacturing, and the laser beam focusing method is based on research done as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative of the 1980s, sometimes called Star Wars.
While many inertial confinement proposals suggest shooting lasers at several fuel pellets per second, Galloway said Xcimer plans to fire one every few seconds.
The inside of the Xcimer reactor will look very different. A fusion explosion would occur inside a waterfall of molten salt instead of a steel-walled reactor. The flowing salt will absorb the energy of the reaction and help generate steam to power the turbine. The hellish sounding waterfall has the nice side benefit of protecting the reactor walls from damage, which is a major concern for the rest of the design. “We don’t have to replace the first wall for the life of the plant,” Galloway said. “It can last 30 years with one room.”
Although only two years old, Xcimer has a ten-year timeline to move to a pilot plant that will prove its commercial-scale ambitions are more than theoretical.
For the next two years, the company created a demonstration-scale version of the laser system, which the company called Phoenix. Although this demo won’t hit 10 megajoules, it will be similar enough to prove the cost savings, Valys said.
To get through that phase, Xcimer has raised $100 million in Series A, the company exclusively told TechCrunch. The round was led by Hedosophia, with participation from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Emerson Collective, Gigascale Capital, Lowercarbon Capital, Prelude Ventures and Starlight Ventures. The startup also has a $9 million milestone-based grant from the Department of Energy.
“That took us through the demo of all the prototypes of this laser system and through our goals for further development of the technology and the roadmap for the rest of the plant,” Valys said. “It’s also more than enough for the early stages of DOE’s milestone program.”
The two friends were confident the ten-year timeline would work. “This is scientific evidence,” Galloway said. “It’s just a matter of building a big enough laser, a cheap enough laser and a good enough laser.”
