Funds will support collaboration with the University of California San Diego to accelerate fusion energy development
PRINCETON, N.J., July 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Thea Energy Inc., formerly Princeton Stellarators, a fusion energy company advancing stellarator technology for commercialization, today announced the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) selected the company for an award provided through the Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) program and sponsored by the Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) program office to accelerate fusion energy development through public-private research partnerships.
Thea Energy will collaborate with the University of California San Diego in the newly funded project to develop a boron based renewable first wall capable of sufficient heat removal and tritium recovery from stellarator fusion devices. Specifically, researchers will focus on a technique to make boron pebble rods that can be tested under power-plant-relevant conditions.
Total funding is $4.6 million for 18 projects lasting up to two years in duration. The awardees were selected via a competitive peer review process managed by the INFUSE leadership team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Full abstracts for each project are available on the INFUSE website and the full list of planned awards is available on the FES website.
About Thea Energy Inc.
Thea Energy Inc., formerly Princeton Stellarators, was founded in 2022 with a focus on leveraging recent breakthroughs in stellarator physics and engineering to create a faster, simpler approach to commercializing fusion energy. Thea Energy is reinventing the stellarator using computer-controlled arrays of planar coils and replacing the intricate, complex modular magnets required in all other proposed stellarator architectures. Stellarators are inherently steady-state, stable magnetic configurations that eliminate potential disruptions, making it an optimal pilot plant architecture. Thea Energy is building off foundational research and technology development that it spun out of Princeton University and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, where the stellarator was first imagined in 1951. Thea Energy’s proprietary breakthroughs have now enabled systems to be simpler and more practical than previously possible resulting in a system design that can scale to long-term commercial system operation and maintenance. To learn more about Thea Energy’s mission to create a limitless source of zero emission energy for a sustainable future, visit https://thea.energy/ and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
