Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

We are happy to announce our Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Today, Pacific Fusion adds LLNL to our expansive network of collaborators to deliver net facility gain—when the fusion energy released surpasses the total energy stored in the system—and to be the first to high-yield fusion (100+ megajoules) on our Demonstration System. 

For over 70 years, LLNL has been a leading national laboratory for national security applications, driving advances in nuclear weapons assessment, nuclear nonproliferation, and global security. LLNL is also widely recognized as the premier U.S. national laboratory for inertial confinement fusion. 

In December 2022, LLNL’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) achieved a historic breakthrough: fusion ignition. This marked the first time the fusion energy released from a fusion target exceeded the energy delivered to it. Over the past two years, ignition has been successfully replicated multiple times at the NIF, demonstrating the growing depth of understanding in fusion physics enabled by this groundbreaking achievement. 

At Pacific Fusion, we are building on NIF’s success by pursuing net facility gain and high-yield fusion. While NIF uses lasers, Pacific Fusion uses energy-efficient pulses of electrical current to compress fusion targets to ignition and high fusion gain regimes. The achievement of ignition at the NIF provided key insights into the conditions required to make fusion a reality, and we are grateful to be able to utilize those insights and others that the NIF continues to generate. 

This collaboration with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory enables a new era of applied fusion. The CRADA was facilitated through LLNL’s Innovation and Partnerships Office (IPO), the focal point for LLNL’s engagement with industry. IPO works to bring scientific breakthroughs to market by transferring LLNL technology to the private sector through licensing and partnerships.