Richard Pearson

Kyoto Fusioneering Ltd

Full power operation of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) has been delayed and will now begin in 2035. Delays to the ITER schedule may affect the availability of tritium for subsequent fusion devices, as the global CANDU-type fission reactor fleet begins to phase out over the coming decades. This study provides an up to da...

Despite several decades of dedicated R&D, fusion, a potentially world-changing energy source, remains decades away from commercialisation. The majority of development thus far has been via publicly-funded programmes led by government laboratories focused on scientific research and in which commercialisation strategy and innovation play a minor role...

There are a range of engineering challenges that lie on the path to a commercial fusion reactor. This chapter provides a detailed overview of these challenges from a concept-neutral perspective, by distilling them into five broad categories: fusion reactor materials, blankets for tritium breeding and power generation, tritium handling and managemen...

Since the turn of the millennium, there has been increasing investment into private companies pursuing the commercialisation of fusion energy. Starting with a discussion of what may be driving such investment, this chapter provides an overview of the many fusion concepts currently under development by these private companies. Most strikingly, the c...

This chapter provides a review of the technological approaches to fusion energy to provide a foundation level understanding to allow the readers to better traverse the later chapters of this book. Three broad conceptual spaces—magnetic confinement fusion (MCF), inertial confinement fusion (ICF), and magneto-inertial fusion (MIF)—are first outlined,...

Kyoto Fusioneering (KF), a Japanese private fusion technology firm, is investigating the use of FLiBe—a eutectic mix of lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride—as a breeder-coolant for tritium breeding in fusion reactors. FLiBe offers several potential benefits, including high neutron multiplication, superior tritium breeding capabilities, low trit...

Kyoto Fusioneering America was awarded three INFUSE projects in FY2023, which are set to begin in 2024. The three projects are detailed, all of which are related to the breeding blanket and tritium technology area. The first project is with Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and is titled "A Multiphysics Simulation of Magnetohydrodynamic (...

This presentation provides an in-depth analysis of the current Research and Development (R&D) status and the future direction of FLiBe molten salt as an enabling technology for tritium breeding and cooling in fusion reactors. The use of FLiBe presents several advantages for the operation of fusion reactors, including high thermal conductivity, low...

Kyoto Fusioneering (KF) aims to accelerate the commercialisation of fusion energy through the development of key enabling technologies. These technologies will be essential to realising a commercially viable power plant and will require novel materials and methods for manufacturing them. The technologies currently studied can be broadly divided int...

The 30th Symposium on Fusion Energy 2023 (SOFE-30) was held at the Examination Schools in Oxford, UK from 9-13 July 2023 under the local organization of the Culham Science Centre of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). The SOFE is a biennial conference with a focus on bringing together individuals from across the global sector to present and dis...

Kyoto Fusioneering (KF), a private fusion technology company based in Japan, is exploring the use of FLiBe (a lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride eutectic mixture) molten salt as a promising breeder-coolant for tritium breeding in fusion reactors. FLiBe has many attractive features, such as: high neutron multiplication, excellent tritium breedi...

Making fusion power viable both technologically and commercially has been a challenge for decades due to the great complexity of the science and engineering challenges. In recent years, changes in both government policies and the emergence of private fusion companies have ushered a newfound push to accelerate fusion energy development. Kyoto Fusion...

Kyoto Fusioneering (KF), a private fusion technology company based in Japan, is exploring the use of FLiBe (a lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride eutectic mixture) molten salt as a promising breeder-coolant for tritium breeding in fusion reactors. FLiBe has many attractive features, such as: high neutron multiplication, excellent tritium breedi...

One of the major research and development challenges on the critical path to achieving a fusion pilot plant is demonstrating the viability of power production from fusion. In August 2022, Kyoto Fusioneering launched the construction of the world’s first integrated testing facility for fusion power generation. The primary testing loop of the facilit...

This article outlines Kyoto Fusioneering’s (KF’s) initial engineering and development activities for its self-cooled lithium lead-type blanket: Self-Cooled Yuryo Lithium-Lead Advanced (SCYLLA). We provide details on overall design, including an initial tritium breeding ratio (TBR) assessment via neutronics analysis, as well as the status of SCYLLA-...

Vacuum Sieve Tray (VST) technology that recovers tritium from falling droplets of liquid media containing tritium under vacuum shows strong potential to be the de facto solution for extracting tritium fuel from liquid breeders/coolants used in future fusion reactors. Existing experimental devices have demonstrated that the concept works for liquid...

Progress in the development of fusion energy has gained momentum in recent years. However questions remain across key subject areas that will affect the path to commercial fusion energy. The purpose of this review is to expose socio-economic areas that need further research, and from this assist in making recommendations to the fusion community, (a...

Nuclear fusion, the process that powers the sun and the stars, is heralded as the ultimate energy source for the future of mankind. The promise of nuclear fusion to provide clean and safe energy, while having abundant fuel resources continues to drive global research and development. However, the goal of reaching so-called “breakeven” energy condit...

The demand for tritium is expected to increase when ITER (the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) begins operation in the mid-2020s. Romania is expected to detritiate its CANDU (Canada Deuterium Uranium) units at Cernavoda starting 2024, with the goal of improving radiological safety and reactor performance. Detritiation will result i...