Interview with Anthony Pancotti of Helion Energy
Continuing The Fusion Report’s interview series with leading fusion companies we spoke with Anthony Pancotti, one of the co-founders of Helion Energy. Helion is the #3 private fusion energy company by funds raised, with slightly over $1B raised to date. They were also the first company to ink a commercial power deal, signing up Microsoft to buy 50 MW of power for one of their data centers. This deal was followed by one with Nucor for 500 MW of power and a $35M investment in Helion. And if that was not enough, Helion also aims to build the first commercial power plant, launching it in 2028!
Controlling Risks to Get to Fusion First
From Day One the key for Helion, which was founded in 2013, has been to only focus on the technologies that were absolutely necessary to achieve commercial fusion energy, and a lot of technologies that, while potentially making fusion easier, posed considerable risk. From Helion’s perspective, there were only a few technologies that are necessary to achieve their goal:
- Aneutronic Fusion: Deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion requires the least amount of power to achieve ignition, and the fuel (two isotopes of hydrogen) are reasonably plentiful. However, most of the 17.6 MeV of energy is in high-energy neutrons, with each neutron carrying 14.1 MeV. These high-energy neutrons, in addition to needing to be “thermalized” (converted to thermal energy which can drive a turbine), also have the nasty habit of ‘activating’ materials in the fusion machine, making them radioactive. To completely avoid this requires the use of aneutronic fusion (fusion which releases charged particles rather than high-energy neutrons). While aneutronic fusion reactions require more energy (e.g., higher temperatures) than a D-T reaction does, using deuterium and helium-3 (D-He3) produces an essentially aneutronic (a fusion reaction that produces less neutrons, and whose neutrons are much lower energy), and with reasonable temperature requirements. Which brings us to the second item:
- Direct Drive Power Conversion: One of the more “lossy” steps in generating electricity is the conversion of energy into the high-pressure steam used to drive the turbine/generator system. This is true regardless of whether the steam is produced by fusion, nuclear fission, or burning fossil fuels. Helion’s approach bypasses this step by using the “recoil” of the fusion reaction produced by the charged particles in the D-He3 reaction to generate currents in the magnets that were used to accelerate and compress the plasma, turning it into electricity.
The result is a significantly simplified fusion energy cycle.
The Interview With Anthony Pancotti
Tell us about the origin of your company: Our founders all had a history in plasmas and fusion; we knew the physics. What we really were interested in exploring were the commercial aspects of fusion – how do you prepare fusion for mass deployment? We looked at FRC as well as other types of fusion, and determined that FRC was the best one to minimize risks. That is our focus –minimizing our risks by choosing our technology battles wisely.
Who are your investors? Helion has a great group of investors; the readiness of investors to support fusion commercialization was one of the pivotal moments that told us it was time to move forward. Some DoE non-diluted capital helped to get things going early and to reduce risk. We also won a Clean Tech Alliance (CTA) award, which also put them on the Seattle area funding radar. Our investors include Sam Altman, Mithril, Capricorn, Softbank Vision Fund 2, Lightspeed, Nucor, Dustin Moskovitz, Reid Hoffman, and more.
What makes your approach unique in the market? Direct energy recovery is one of the key pieces that differentiates us, as well as using D-He3 as our fuel. Staying away from D-T has a lot of benefits: fewer neutron-activated materials to deal with, no need to thermalize the neutrons, etc. While D-He3 does produce some neutrons, it is not a lot, and they are not the high-energy ones of D-T.
What inspired you to generate electricity directly from the “recoil” of the fusion reaction, instead of using steam generation? Economics. Instead of using century-old technology, why not try to do something different and smaller than turbines, etc. The fact that our fusion machine is pulsed and uses D-He3 avoids most of the energy in neutrons, and given the bulk of the energy is contained in charged particles enables the use of recoil.
Who are your target customers? Obviously data centers as demonstrated by our Microsoft deal, but also the grid and large industrial players (Nucor uses DC power for their smelters) are our targets as well. From a size standpoint, we are looking to move from 50 MW to several hundred MW power ranges. AND since our fusion machines are modular, they can be used in arrays to increase the total power generated.
What is your biggest supply chain challenge(s)? Two major supply chain pieces: capacitors for the pulsed power supply, and semiconductor switches; these are our highest cost items. We build our own capacitors, but we buy our semiconductor switches where we already have robust technologies that are available today. In general, our goal is to minimize the number of “unicorns” in our supply chain. The same is true with artificial intelligence (AI) – it may have a part in our technology in the future, but we are not relying on it today.
When will commercial fusion electricity be on the grid? Helion sees reaching 10% or greater of the total US generation quickly after we launch our initial fusion electricity plant in 2028. We are driving towards this rather than just waiting for fusion energy to happen.
Who will be the first country with commercial fusion? The US (and Helion) hands down. For China, the resources and funds that they have allows them to move fast, and they can be a player even if they are not the “first mover”. We believe that the US government has finally heard this, and is now working on strategies to support the commercialization of fusion.
“People” question – what are the challenges? Hiring the right people can be one of the biggest challenges, and it is not just PhDs and engineers – it is also the trades (welders, machinists, etc.). Helion hires a LOT of techs and trades to help us achieve our speed to market. Luckily for us, the Seattle area job market has a plethora of high-tech trade people.
Company Differentiators: We are not inventing all of our tech. Our focus is on commercializing fusion, and being able to deploy it at scale. Electrification enables a lot of environmentally-friendly technologies (active carbon sequestering, transport, etc.), which is also one of our goals – to help the planet and the environment.
Conclusion: De-Risking Fusion
From Helion’s perspective, the safest approach to commercializing fusion energy is to derisk it as much as possible. That means choosing robust technologies that are readily available, even if there are more promising ones on the horizon. By doing that, Helion believes that they will increase their likelihood of success in commercializing fusion.
