Fusion power startups find new partners in the defense world
Fusion power startups find new partners in the defense world
核聚变初创公司在国防领域找到新合作伙伴
Fusion power is getting back to its roots. As fusion startups keep chasing their ultimate goal — putting electrons on the grid — many are also now embracing, or returning to, the defense applications that laid the foundation for the industry. The sector emerged decades ago when physicists looked for more constructive uses of the science behind the thermonuclear bombs that proliferated during the Cold War. The national security angle never really went away. A groundbreaking fusion power experiment in 2022 happened at the National Ignition Facility, which has supported national security applications for more than 25 years.
核聚变能源正在回归其本源。随着核聚变初创公司不断追求其最终目标——将电力输送到电网——许多公司现在也开始拥抱或回归到为该行业奠定基础的国防应用中。几十年前，当物理学家们试图为冷战时期扩散的热核武器背后的科学寻找更具建设性的用途时，这一领域便应运而生。国家安全视角从未真正消失。2022 年在国家点火装置（National Ignition Facility）进行的一项开创性核聚变实验，该设施已支持国家安全应用超过 25 年。
That shift has accelerated as venture dollars committed to climate tech — the funds that typically have supported fusion startups — have stalled. Fusion startups have captured a large portion of recent climate tech funding, but fusion is an expensive business, and VCs are always happy when their portfolio companies find other sources of money. That’s where the defense industry comes in.
随着投向气候科技的风险投资资金（通常是支持核聚变初创公司的资金来源）陷入停滞，这种转变正在加速。核聚变初创公司虽然获得了近期气候科技融资的很大一部分，但核聚变是一项昂贵的业务，风险投资人总是乐于看到其投资组合公司找到其他资金来源。这就是国防工业发挥作用的地方。
The defense industry has explored laser weapons for years, but interest has spiked as drones have reshaped modern warfare. Traditional air defense systems were designed to target human-piloted aircraft, which tend to be larger and fewer in number. That has led to some comical mismatches between aggressor and defender. For example, about a decade ago, a U.S. ally used a $3 million Patriot missile to shoot down a $200 consumer drone. Effective, but not very efficient.
国防工业多年来一直在探索激光武器，但随着无人机重塑现代战争，人们对激光武器的兴趣激增。传统的防空系统旨在针对有人驾驶飞机，这些飞机通常体积较大且数量较少。这导致了攻击者和防御者之间一些滑稽的不匹配。例如，大约十年前，美国的一个盟友使用价值 300 万美元的“爱国者”导弹击落了一架价值 200 美元的消费级无人机。虽然有效，但效率并不高。
Laser weapons promise to alter the math. Instead of firing a single, expensive, one-use missile per shot, they fire quickly and relatively cheaply, using electricity drawn from a generator or a ship’s reactor or engine. Fusion startups working on laser-based reactor designs are ideal partners in developing such weapons.
激光武器有望改变这种成本计算方式。它们不再是每次发射一枚昂贵的一次性导弹，而是利用发电机、舰船反应堆或发动机提供的电力，快速且相对廉价地进行发射。致力于激光反应堆设计的核聚变初创公司是开发此类武器的理想合作伙伴。
Last week, laser-based fusion startup Xcimer announced a partnership with and investment from RTX, the conglomerate that includes defense contractor Raytheon. Under the deal, Xcimer gets funding from RTX Ventures, while RTX can start exploring how to use Xcimer’s powerful lasers for its own purposes. Denver-based Xcimer currently operates what it says is the largest privately owned laser system in the world, which it plans to use to develop a power plant. Inside its power plant, lasers will bombard fuel targets, compressing them until the atoms inside fuse and release energy. The startup’s current laser system, Phoenix, operates at an order of magnitude lower power than will be required for a power plant, but it is powerful enough to have caught the attention of the defense industry.
上周，激光核聚变初创公司 Xcimer 宣布与 RTX（包含国防承包商雷神公司的企业集团）建立合作伙伴关系并获得其投资。根据协议，Xcimer 将获得 RTX Ventures 的资金，而 RTX 则可以开始探索如何将其强大的激光器用于自身目的。总部位于丹佛的 Xcimer 目前运营着其所称的全球最大的私有激光系统，并计划利用该系统开发发电厂。在其发电厂内部，激光将轰击燃料靶标，对其进行压缩，直到内部原子发生聚变并释放能量。该初创公司目前的激光系统“凤凰”（Phoenix）的运行功率比发电厂所需功率低一个数量级，但其功率已足以引起国防工业的关注。
Xcimer isn’t the only player in the defense space. Pacific Fusion announced a memorandum of understanding last month with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to work together on high-energy-density fusion experiments. The startup recently broke ground on a demonstration facility in New Mexico not far from the Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories. While its primary purpose is to demonstrate that the company’s design can generate more power than the facility consumes, it has other uses. The fusion reactions at Pacific Fusion’s facility will be far more powerful than those the government currently uses to perform nuclear weapons experiments.
Xcimer 并非国防领域唯一的参与者。Pacific Fusion 上个月宣布与国家核安全管理局（NNSA）签署谅解备忘录，共同开展高能量密度核聚变实验。该初创公司最近在新墨西哥州破土动工建设一个示范设施，距离桑迪亚国家实验室和洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室不远。虽然其主要目的是证明该公司的设计产生的能量能够超过设施本身的消耗，但它还有其他用途。Pacific Fusion 设施中的核聚变反应将比政府目前用于进行核武器实验的反应强大得多。
“It turns out that the facility that we’re building also has utility in this world-leading defense application,” Keith LeChein, co-founder and chief technical officer at Pacific Fusion, told TechCrunch recently. It might sound like a convenient coincidence, but it isn’t one. Defense applications were “always on our mind,” said Carrie von Muench, co-founder and chief operating officer at Pacific Fusion. LeChien, who developed the company’s core technology, previously worked at Sandia National Laboratories, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the National Nuclear Security Administration.
“事实证明，我们正在建设的设施在这一世界领先的国防应用中也具有实用价值，”Pacific Fusion 的联合创始人兼首席技术官 Keith LeChein 最近告诉 TechCrunch。这听起来可能是一个巧合，但事实并非如此。Pacific Fusion 的联合创始人兼首席运营官 Carrie von Muench 表示，国防应用“一直都在我们的考虑之中”。开发了该公司核心技术的 LeChien 此前曾在桑迪亚国家实验室、劳伦斯利弗莫尔国家实验室和国家核安全管理局工作过。
Fusion power has come a long way since the first weapons scientists dreamt it up decades ago, but its national security applications haven’t been forgotten. Their recent reacquaintance is perhaps overdue, and promises to give willing fusion startups a helpful boost.
自几十年前第一批武器科学家构想出核聚变能源以来，它已经取得了长足的进步，但其国家安全应用并未被遗忘。它们近期的“重逢”或许早该发生，并有望为愿意参与其中的核聚变初创公司提供有力的推动。