World's largest privately owned laser turned on (Xcimer Energy fusion)

Fusion startup Xcimer Energy turned on its Phoenix laser system on Wednesday. The company said the system is the largest privately owned laser in the world. Its fusion approach follows the National Ignition Facility design. That facility showed a controlled fusion reaction could release more power than required for ignition. The facility directed 192 laser beams at a fuel target smaller than a pencil eraser. Energy from the lasers struck a gold target and converted to X-rays. The X-rays focused on the fuel pellet and compressed it until atoms fused and released energy. Xcimer believes more powerful and less complex lasers can make the concept profitable for power generation. Its power plant design uses two lasers firing microsecond-long pulses. The pulses pass through a compression system that delivers energy to the fuel target in nanoseconds. Faster compression raises the likelihood of usable fusion reactions. Phoenix advances toward a power plant. It uses excimer amplification similar to semiconductor manufacturing but at greater power. The krypton-fluoride laser generates over 1 kilojoule of energy at full strength. Its core measures 38 meters long. This output is less than the more than 12 megajoules required for a commercial plant. The company plans to complete a prototype in 2028. It will then develop a larger system expected to produce at least as much power as it consumes. Construction of the first commercial-scale power plant is scheduled for the mid 2030s.