Acoustic Inertial Confinement Fusion

Controlled fusion has been pursued by scientists worldwide for more than 50 years because of its potential to produce clean, inexpensive, and unlimited energy. To successfully drive fusion reactions, a system must be capable of generating temperatures high enough to produce plasma, a state of matter that contains charged particles, positive ions, and negative electrons.

Extreme Acoustic Cavitation™ from Impulse shows the potential to produce plasma at the super-concentrated cores of the collapsed bubbles, making this technology well-suited for producing acoustic inertial confinement fusion (Acoustic ICF). Acoustic ICF is a variety of “hot” fusion that, if successful, will require far less energy, cost, and resource use than other approaches—such as laser inertial confinement fusion—and solve a major challenge common to these other approaches: heat absorption. Using Acoustic ICF, heat is readily absorbed and transferred due to the fusion reaction occurring within a contained liquid medium.

Impulse’s current experimental data and computations support continued investigation into the possibility of achieving plasma temperatures capable of producing significant fusion yields. Based on current projections and experimental data, Impulse technology may ultimately be capable of creating usable energy at cost levels far lower than all known competing technologies currently available.