Cambridge Heavy Industries has been quietly building a desktop fusion device

Fusion power usually conjures images of massive industrial facilities laced with large lasers or magnets, but a startup in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been quietly building a device that can fit on a tabletop. The optics of the device were on display behind Yun Kai, co-founder and CEO of Cambridge Heavy Industries, while he chatted with me on a video call.

核聚变能源通常会让人联想到布满大型激光器或磁铁的庞大工业设施，但马萨诸塞州剑桥市的一家初创公司一直在悄悄制造一种可以放在桌面上的设备。当剑桥重工业公司（Cambridge Heavy Industries）联合创始人兼首席执行官云凯（Yun Kai）与我进行视频通话时，该设备的各种光学元件就展示在他身后。

The company has been operating in stealth out of a small lab near MIT, and Kai gave TechCrunch an exclusive look at the technology it has been developing. “We purposely built a small modular reactor. It’s tiny, it’s benchtop,” he told me. “Because it’s small, it makes everything easier.”

该公司一直在麻省理工学院附近的一个小型实验室里秘密运营，云凯向 TechCrunch 独家展示了他们正在开发的这项技术。“我们特意建造了一个小型模块化反应堆。它非常小，是桌面级的，”他告诉我。“因为它体积小，所以一切都变得更容易了。”

The small size has allowed Cambridge Heavy to experiment and iterate quickly. “The small module nature can enable 50 to 80 experiments, 50 to 80 shots per day,” he said. Data from those experiments will feed simulations that use AI to optimize the design.

这种小尺寸使剑桥重工业公司能够快速进行实验和迭代。“这种小型模块的特性每天可以进行 50 到 80 次实验，即 50 到 80 次发射，”他说。来自这些实验的数据将输入到利用人工智能优化设计的模拟中。

That nimble approach has attracted investor attention. The startup recently raised a $6.2 million seed round led by Azolla Ventures with participation from Overlay, Neta Foundation, P3A, MassCEC, and the Rothrock family.

这种灵活的方法吸引了投资者的注意。这家初创公司最近完成了 620 万美元的种子轮融资，由 Azolla Ventures 领投，Overlay、Neta Foundation、P3A、MassCEC 和 Rothrock 家族参与投资。

Cambridge Heavy’s fusion reactor uses lasers to compress a fuel target, similar to the groundbreaking experiment that proved controlled fusion reactions could produce more power than they consume. But unlike other inertial confinement designs, Cambridge Heavy’s minimizes the number of lasers required to spark fusion.

剑桥重工业公司的核聚变反应堆使用激光压缩燃料靶，这与那项证明受控核聚变反应产生的能量可以超过其消耗能量的开创性实验类似。但与其他惯性约束设计不同的是，剑桥重工业公司的设计最大限度地减少了引发核聚变所需的激光数量。

The system uses two main lasers to drive ignition. One laser is split into multiple beam lines that deliver light in concentric rings. Those rings of laser light are timed to hit the flat, round fuel target successively, starting from the outside and working in.

该系统使用两台主激光器来驱动点火。其中一台激光器被分成多条光束线，以同心圆环的形式输送光线。这些激光环经过定时，从外向内依次击中扁平的圆形燃料靶。

The first ring starts a compression wave within the target that starts traveling inward. The subsequent laser rings are timed to boost the wave at just the right moment to further compress the fuel. As the shock wave reaches the center of the target, a laser fires on the target, generating heat and producing a magnetic field. With the right amount of pressure and heat, fusion occurs.

第一个环在靶内引发压缩波，并开始向内传播。随后的激光环经过定时，在恰当的时机增强波的能量，以进一步压缩燃料。当冲击波到达靶心时，激光射向靶标，产生热量并形成磁场。在适当的压力和热量下，核聚变就会发生。

Cambridge Heavy’s design generates high pressures with relatively low laser power, Kai said. The concept emerged from the lab of Keith Nelson, a chemist at MIT. There, researchers used the laser pulses to study materials under extreme conditions. As they ramped up pressures, they realized they were approaching fusion-ready conditions.

云凯表示，剑桥重工业公司的设计以相对较低的激光功率产生了高压。这一概念源自麻省理工学院化学家基思·尼尔森（Keith Nelson）的实验室。在那里，研究人员利用激光脉冲研究极端条件下的材料。随着压力的增加，他们意识到自己正在接近核聚变所需的条件。

In about a decade, Cambridge Heavy plans to develop a power plant from the concept, though that’ll require scaling up the design. It will be larger than the current benchtop prototype, though not quite as large as other fusion power plants. Kai said it should be about the size of two basketball courts, and it will test whether the approach can generate enough energy to support a power plant.

大约十年后，剑桥重工业公司计划根据这一概念开发一座发电厂，尽管这需要扩大设计规模。它将比目前的桌面原型机更大，但不会像其他核聚变发电厂那么大。云凯说，它的大小应该相当于两个篮球场，并将测试这种方法是否能产生足够的能量来支持发电厂运行。

Before that happens, though, Cambridge Heavy plans to use its smaller-scale devices to make tritium, a rare isotope of hydrogen that will be used by nearly all fusion power plants in the works today. Tritium sells for around $30,000 per gram today.

不过，在此之前，剑桥重工业公司计划利用其小型设备制造氚，这是一种稀有的氢同位素，几乎所有目前正在研发的核聚变发电厂都会用到它。氚目前的售价约为每克 30,000 美元。

Each power plant won’t need a lot of tritium — on the order of grams per year — but the substance is so rare that only about 40 kilograms exist today. One recent study predicts that without new sources, the fusion power industry will be short by about 28 kilograms in 2054. At current prices, that’s about $840 million worth of tritium.

每座发电厂所需的氚并不多——每年大约几克——但这种物质非常稀有，目前世界上仅存约 40 公斤。最近的一项研究预测，如果没有新的来源，到 2054 年，核聚变能源行业将短缺约 28 公斤。按目前的价格计算，这相当于价值约 8.4 亿美元的氚。

Fusion startups are in the process of designing fuel systems that will help the reactors be largely self-sufficient when it comes to tritium supplies, though they may need occasional top-ups. But that process could take up to 10 years, Kai said, giving Cambridge Heavy years of potential revenue as it pursues its power plant.

核聚变初创公司正在设计燃料系统，以帮助反应堆在氚供应方面实现基本自给自足，尽管它们可能需要偶尔补充。但云凯表示，这一过程可能需要长达 10 年的时间，这为剑桥重工业公司在追求发电厂目标的同时，提供了多年的潜在收入来源。