Enabling Fusion Energy

On the path toward fusion power production, there remain a number of technical hurdles beyond energy breakeven. The following represents the largest challenges to address:

• Improving our database of knowledge relating to particle interactions and materials damage experienced within an operating fusion reactor.

• Understanding how to best manage, shield, and harness the unique radiation produced around a power reactor.

• Designing tritium breeder blankets to enable the regeneration of tritium fuel burnt up in the reactor: AKA a tritium breeding ratio (TBR) > 1.

• Calibrating all of the ancillary instrumentation surrounding a reactor in advance of reactor operation.

To meet these tasks, the fusion industry requires testbeds that provide an analogue to the environment experienced in and around a functioning power reactor.

Our reliable and high-performance fusion reactor technology provides exactly this. From calibrating diagnostic equipment to shielding material testing, our compact systems provide a tunable and versatile platform for experimentation and high-quality data generation.

Due to the ultra-compact and modular nature of our systems, we are able to design fusion research facilities built around an array of Astral reactors to maximize neutron flux within a focused volume.

Through partnerships with organisations such as the UKAEA, Astral has already provided valuable data using its reactor technologies that will accelerate the development of fusion power.