Us Laser Fusion company receives $25 million in funding

Blue Laser Fusion, an American laser fusion energy company, recently announced that it has received a total of $25 million in seed financing, and the main investors of this round are JAFCO Group Co., Ltd. and SPARX Group Co., LTD. (Mirai Creation Fund III), two of Japan's top venture capital institutions. With the financing in place, the company will expand its R&D operations in the Santa Barbara area and Tokyo to develop its prototype commercial reactor.

Blue Laser Fusion is a California-based company It was founded in 2022 by Dr. Shuji Nakamura, 2014 Nobel Prize winner in Physics and professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara; Dr. Santa Barbara Hiroaki Ohta, general Partner at Waseda University Ventures (WUV); and Richard Ogawa, a Silicon Valley lawyer. Among them, Dr. Shuji Nakamura was one of three winners of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics for the development of blue light-emitting diodes.

Blue Laser Fusion has developed a proprietary new laser fusion technology that promises to use a megajoule pulsed energy laser with a fast repetition rate to help enable the world's first commercial fusion for grid power generation. The company has more than 200 patent applications and plans to complete its first prototype in 2025, followed by a 1 gigawatt power-generating reactor in Japan or the United States by 2030.

Blue Laser Fusion plans to use a safe hydrogen-boron fuel called "HB11" for sustainable and environmentally friendly operations. HB11 fuel is not radioactive, has no harmful neutrons, and produces safe helium, a naturally abundant mineral. In addition to achieving fusion reactions, they also hope to maintain this reaction to create clean, renewable energy.

Hiroaki Ohta, the company's chief technology officer, said: "HB11 is the perfect fuel for nuclear fusion and does not contain harmful neutrons or tritium like traditional fusion technologies. We are excited to work with our team of world-leading scientists and experts to sustain this reaction to create clean, renewable energy, in addition to igniting the fusion reaction with HB11."

Shuji Nakamura, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company, commented, "We are pleased to have the support of our investors and funding. In my opinion, Blue Laser Fusion has the best fusion technology and we will be able to achieve commercial fusion by 2030. I'm always looking for ways to help change the world and free the planet from carbon emissions."

Keisuke Miyoshi, President, CEO and Partner at JAFCO, said: "Nuclear fusion is the ultimate energy source, and its successful commercialization would be a giant leap towards clean and abundant energy for everyone. Advances in laser inertia technology, including Blue laser Fusion's ability to execute the next generation of laser technology, offer a very exciting and promising path to ultimately sustainable energy."

Currently, in order to sustain fusion reactions, nuclear scientists typically employ two main methods. One method involves magnetic confinement, and the other uses lasers and fires them in rapid succession. However, there are drawbacks to this approach - large devices cannot fire lasers in continuous mode, and small devices cannot produce outputs high enough to ignite fusion fuel. That's where Blue Laser Fusion believes it can make a difference.

Dr. Nakamura believes his company can use their semiconductor expertise to create a safe, commercially viable path to achieving nuclear fusion. As the company is currently applying for a patent, the exact details of the method are still under wraps.

However, in the months since its inception, the company has filed more than a dozen patent applications in the United States and other countries. Blue Laser Fusion also works with other Japanese companies, such as Toshiba Energy Systems and Solutions, a manufacturer of turbines for nuclear power plants, and YUKI Holdings, a Tokyo-based company that provides metalworking services.

Source: OFweek