Leveraging Public-Private Partnerships for the Development of PFRC

Princeton Fusion Systems (PFS) is collaborating with the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory to commercialize the Princeton Field-Reversed Configuration (PFRC). The PFRC is specifically designed to be small and clean, producing 1/1000 the neutron radiation per unit power of the mainline approaches to fusion by leveraging the FRC's high beta to utilize advanced fuels. The resulting 1 to 10 MW portable microreactors would have unique applications including modular power plants, space power and propulsion, military forward power, off-grid industrial and civilian sites, developing nations, and emergency power. DOE, NASA, and ARPA-E have funded development to date and the team was just selected for three INFUSE awards. These awards have supported the PFRC-1 and the currently operating PFRC-2. PFS seeks to leverage public-private partnerships to help fund the development of a fully superconducting proof of concept testbed, the PFRC-3, at a private facility. The next step in our roadmap is PFRC-4, a pilot plant that would produce net electricity with our target fuels of Deuterium and Helium-3. PFS is also developing power electronics for fusion systems with ARPA-E. This product line will also benefit from further public-private support and will provide an independent revenue stream.