As public and private initiatives continue to experiment with different ways of harnessing the power of nuclear fusion, an industry is starting to take shape. Supply chain innovators are poised to play an important role.
The challenge for the companies laying the groundwork for what will eventually become a supply chain for commercial reactors is that it is still a very early market. As long as the industry remains in an experimental phase, startups that develop supporting technology and services have to look for commonality among the different approaches and bet their business on the small number of technologies that will prevail.
Moderated by Melanie Windridge from Fusion Energy Insights, ''Supply Chain Innovators'' brought together (from left to right) Chang Ho Choi (EnableFusion), Christian Day (Kyoto Fusioneering), and David Hatch (ExoFusion). Photo Christian Lünig
The company views simulation design using AI and machine learning as a low capital, high intellectual property business with the potential for big returns on investment. "Even though most of the fusion occurs in the core of the plasma, the core is very sensitive to what happens on the scrape off layer, which could be as small as a few centimetres wide in a plasma on the scale of metres," said Hatch. "Our focus is on the edge of the plasma, and this has resulted in a growing portfolio of innovations, including a new divertor concept."