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Inertia Enterprises cuts fusion fuel pellet production from days to hours
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Inertia Enterprises has reduced the time to manufacture its fusion fuel pellets from days to a few hours, addressing one of ten hurdles to a commercial power plant.
For engineers working on fusion or high-precision manufacturing, this shows how relaxing tolerances via a more powerful driver can accelerate production. The reduced manufacturing time also cuts the radioactive tritium inventory needed on site, lowering cost and safety overhead. However, the approach depends on a laser four times more powerful than NIF's, which may not be available to other efforts.
Written by elseif from the cluster below · every claim links back to a sourceThe three things worth knowing
Inertia reduced fuel pellet production from up to a week at NIF to about two to three hours.
The faster process reduces the tritium inventory needed, since tritium is expensive and radioactive.
The startup plans to use a laser four times more powerful than NIF's, giving margin for imperfections.
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