Avalanche Fusion, a Seattle startup, is pursuing a radical approach to fusion that could shrink reactors small enough to fit in a backpack and power a car. Most fusion efforts play it safe with proven science and larger scales, but Avalanche is betting on a riskier path with minimal experimental evidence behind it.
Chapters
Let me talk about compactness and let's talk about that triple product and show the progress we're making. The most audacious fusion startup that I know of is a company called Avalanche Fusion, also in the Seattle area, and they believe they can make a fusion reactor small enough to power a car. It's not Mr. Fusion, it's more like half the size of a car. But that— And sometimes they talk about like big backpack. So that is the most ambitious project as far as compactness. Typically in fusion, you have like a sliding scale of like what has the most like de-risked science but has like a more conventional power cost versus what could be like revolutionary in power cost or compactness. But the science is like, let's hope you get it right. You know, like we don't have as much evidence.