LPP Fusion
🇺🇸 US · Active
Also known as LAWRENCEVILLE PLASMA PHYSICS, INC. DBA LPPFUSION
LPP Fusion (LPPFusion, also known as Lawrenceville Plasma Physics) is a small company in Middlesex, New Jersey, developing a fusion device called the dense plasma focus. The device runs a large electrical current through a gas so that the resulting plasma pinches into a tiny, dense ball, or plasmoid, where fusion can occur. The company aims to burn hydrogen and boron-11, a fuel that releases most of its energy as charged particles rather than neutrons, and calls the combination "Focus Fusion". Its experimental device, Focus Fusion-1, produced its first pinch in October 2009. The dense plasma focus was studied for power from the 1960s, but Wikipedia notes that its scaling laws suggested it would not suit commercial generation. LPP says its work was first funded by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and is now backed by more than 2,000 private investors, and it raises money through public crowdfunding.
- Sector
- Fusion
- Technology
- Z-pinch
- Fuel
- Proton–boron-11
- Role
- Fusion developer, Operator
It is the operator of record for FOCUS FUSION (operating).
Terms
- Z-pinch
- A current driven straight through a plasma column, whose own magnetic field squeezes it inward. Long set aside as unstable; sheared-flow stabilisation, studied at the University of Washington and pursued commercially by Zap Energy, renewed work on it.
- Proton–boron-11
- Called aneutronic because the main reaction releases no neutrons, though side reactions and impurities still produce some. Requires at least an order of magnitude more triple product than D-T. A p-¹¹B roadmap that skips D-T is a listed red flag.
Devices
People
- Eric LernerPresident and Chief Scientist
- Ivy KaramitsosChief Information Officer and Communications Director
Related companies
Sources
- LPPFusion: Zero Emissions, Zero Nuclear Waste | Decentralized Fusion Energyoperator
- About LPPFusionoperator
- Dense plasma focusaggregator
- World Survey of Fusion Devices 2022independent