I sum up statements by German edition of Scientific American (Spektrum der Wissenschaft), this company is the biggest and leading diode Laser manufacturer in the world. Keep in mind, that not only Focused Energy relies on such lasers, but also Inertia Enterprises, Marvel Fusion and likely others too, they are in close exchange with Focused Energy in Darmstadt Germany:

They need about 1200 such lasers for a power plant, heat dissipation is feasible, frequency of 10 Hz shots too. They need a team of 100 to 150 to develop a mass manufacturable prototype, 250 million Euro and five years.

He criticizes that the German government builds a magnet fusion hub, but no comparable laser fusion hub, which is merely a laser research facility. There are at least 5 billion Euro required to build a power plant prototype of this kind.

Remark: Proxima Fusion needs 1.2 billion Euro by German government to build the Proxima Alpha demonstration Stellarator. They might have better chances regarding this step at least.

See documents in shared Google Drive folder here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WcKuE9NcSL4vk7VlPLM8TfgEhzLk5dJw?usp=sharing

Radioactive Materials License:

The application begins on page 18 of the RML package. The maximum inventory at Polaris was changed from 0.02 MCi to 0.45 MCi, while Orion is licensed for 1.03 MCi. One gram of tritium is 9,650 Ci.

Orion Shielding Report:

The shield walls will be 2.7 meters (9 feet) of heavy aggregate high-density concrete, and the ceiling will be 2-meter-thick panels of high-density concrete.

This doesn't mean Orion will definitely operate with DT, but it does mean that the risk that D-He3 doesn't work is still a consideration.

A comparison with Polaris's neutron shield vault is interesting. Polaris's walls were 2.5 feet of borated concrete lined with 2.5 feet of borated polyethylene (BPE). The design called for solid blocks of BPE, but they ended up stacking slabs of 6-inch BPE held in place by metal plates. Let's just say that the installation looked cumbersome, and they never submitted as-built plans to the city signed off by a structural engineer.

One similarity with Polaris is that they will be adding the roof separately after Orion is installed, meaning there will still be no crane inside the shield.

Building Permits and Inspections for Orion:

The two support buildings for Orion passed their final inspections on Tuesday: a 6,240-square-foot office and control room building and a 26,800-square-foot assembly building.

The generator building is scheduled for insulation inspection next Monday so that means the walls and roof are finished. The floor is still dirt, presumably so they can pour the foundation for the shield walls and there is no sign yet of any crane supports.

Tiny Merge Radioactive Air Emissions License: Tiny Merge is located in Helion's HQ building in the same location as the Polaris Formation Test machines. They are applying for a RAEL because they will be doing low-level DD fusion in Tiny Merge, which they didn't do with the Formation Test. This is the same level of license they had with Trenta in Redmond, a Potential Impact Category Level 4 (PIC 4) classification. Polaris and Orion are both classified as PIC 1.

CFS: https://jobs.lever.co/cfsenergy?commitment=Internship

Helion: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/helion/?employmentType=Intern

Hello! My university has an independent student research grant available, and I'd like to do research on advanced manufacturing techniques. This includes casting and forging, then do fatigue analysis. I'd really like to have this research apply to fusion, especially Stellarators as I know there will have to be some innovation in manufacturing to get Q>1 (though anything would be awesome). Could anyone give me some avenues to look at? I'm not trying to have research spelled out for me, but I would just love some pointers on how I can begin to formulate a topic. Thanks!

I know absolutely nothing about anything in this, but I came across this on Twitter and it seemed novel only because of the use of AI tools. Thought that was interesting, curious how the more educated people here feel about this trend in academia esp as it pertains to fusion research.

I am very skeptical about their approach, but I think you should know.