Nuclear Fusion, the process that powers the sun, is the ultimate source of energy for all life on Earth.  On the sun, deuterium and tritium nuclei combine to produce an alpha particle (the nucleus of a helium atom) and a neutron. The dream is to do the same down here, on Earth, in a controlled manner.

If only scientists could harness the fusion reaction to produce energy in a man-made reactor, all of mankind’s energy problems could be solved. Fusion would provide clean, safe, reliable and limitless energy sources, eliminating the need for power plants that pollute and emit carbon dioxide.

Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) is a highly promising approach that uses powerful lasers to heat a small target containing fusible material. Lasers are fundamental tools in IFE research. Last winter, for the first time in history, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Ignition Facility achieved a critical milestone in the development of IFE by demonstrating a net target gain with the fusion energy output exceeding the laser energy input on the way to making commercial fusion a success.

To that end, the U.S. Department of Energy has established a new Inertial Fusion Science and Technology Hub, known as RISE. The new hub will focus on advancing inertial fusion energy, or IFE.

“The hub will become a center of excellence for IFE science and technology to support DOE’s mission in IFE,” said Marlan Scully, director of the A&M Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering (IQSE).

The DOE investments in IFE science and technology will enable the RISE Hub researchers to build on the momentum of that breakthrough. The RISE Hub brings together leading institutions in the U.S. and innovative private fusion companies, with their unique complementary skills, to synergistically work together to achieve scientific milestones in making fusion energy a commercial reality and grow the much-needed diverse workforce in fusion.

RISE will receive many millions in funding over the next four years.

Researchers from IQSE are joined by scientists and engineers from University of Illinois, Cornell University, Colorado State University, the DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Naval Research Laboratory, and three companies: Marvel Fusion, Xcimer Energy, and General Atomics.

The RISE Hub is funded by the DOE’s Office of Science, Fusion Energy Science through the DOE’s Inertial Fusion Energy Science and Technology Accelerator Research (IFE-STAR). The RISE Hub will combine innovative target concepts with new developments in excimer gas lasers and solid-state laser drivers to open up novel IFE regimes. The hub will also prioritize the involvement of students and workforce development, and university-industry-national laboratory collaborations.