The Zap Energy approach to commercial fusion

PRESENTED BY STEVE RICHARDSON

Fusion energy is widely considered to be "the clean energy of the future". With minimal waste, no carbon emission, and plentiful fuel, fusion holds the potential to be a transformative energy source. In this talk, I will give a brief history of fusion, including the basics of fusion physics, and an overview of the various approaches being pursued towards controlled, energy producing, fusion plasmas. Then I will give more details about the sheared-flow-stabilized (SFS) Z-pinch concept that we are developing at Zap Energy. Without need for external confinement or heating technologies, the SFS Z pinch relies on plasma self-organization, and could provide the basis for a cost-effective fusion power plant.

Link to video on Dropbox

Steve Richardson (Physics Ph.D., W&M) is a Senior Research Scientist at Zap Energy. He has spent his career studying and modeling plasmas at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and more than a decade with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. He has been with Zap Energy since November 2022, where he is helping to understand and improve shear-flow-stabilized z-pinch fusion and develop it into a commercially viable energy source.