Oak Ridge National Laboratory signed an agreement with Type One Energy at the Nuclear Opportunities Workshop in Knoxville. The lab is licensing four new inventions to help fuel fusion reactors.

The agreement focuses on cryogenic pellet fueling. Instead of just puffing gas into a reactor, this system freezes hydrogen into solid pellets just a few degrees above absolute zero. Then, it shoots them into the fusion plasma at high speeds. It works much better at fueling the core than older methods.

Fixing the Nuclear Fuel Issue

Type One Energy’s Infinity One Stellarator; Photo: Type One Energy

Fusion reactors run on a steady supply of deuterium and tritium to keep the reaction going. Deuterium is common and easy to handle. Tritium, however, is scarce and highly radioactive. Right now, no existing machines can produce fuel pellets fast enough to keep up with what a reactor actually needs.

Type One Energy is a company based in Oak Ridge. They are building stellarator technology to bring fusion energy to the commercial market. John Canik, Chief Science and Engineering Officer at Type One Energy, explained the need for this specific gear.

“Our continuing collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory is accelerating the commercialization of fusion energy,” Canik said. “Fueling the fusion reaction with high repetition and high reliability is one of the most essential technologies for continuous generation of fusion power.”

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To fix the speed and safety issues, an ORNL team built a new suite of tools. The inventors are Steve Meitner, Dean McGinnis, Larry Baylor, and Jeff Ullreich. Their tech includes a tritium-compatible gas gun with real-time size control, a screw extruder, and a reusable pressure relief valve. It also features a closed-loop system that recycles leftover extrusion back into gas. This cuts down on the amount of tritium they have to keep on hand.

Moving Out of the Lab

“Type One Energy is a valued partner in advancing fusion energy research. This license is an exciting next step in our partnership, moving our fueling research out of the lab and into application, and we look forward to seeing these technologies contribute to the future of fusion energy,” said ORNL Director Stephen Streiffer.

Getting these inventions out of the lab safely handles radioactive materials and helps build better reactors.

“We’re proud to partner with Type One to move ORNL innovations into the marketplace, strengthening an emerging regional economic driver while accelerating commercialization of technologies critical to the future of fusion energy,” said Shaun Gleason, director of Partnerships at ORNL.