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2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
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DOE approves Xcimer’s laser fusion power plant design
The Department of Energy has approved Xcimer Energy's Athena fusion power plant preconceptual technical design. With this milestone achieved, the Denver, Colo.-based company is now moving forward with its plans to develop economical laser inertial confinement fusion using two beamlines, gas laser technology, and a molten salt fusion chamber.
The National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory demonstrated net energy gain from inertial confinement fusion in 2022 using solid-state glass lasers and 192 beamlines.
Laura Price, Halim Alsaed, Eduardo Basurto, Alex Salazar, Gregory Davidson, Mathew Swinney
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 9 | September 2024 | Pages 1549-1566
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2277028
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The U.S. Department of Energy is funding research into studying the consequences of postclosure criticality on the performance of a generic repository by (1) identifying the features, events, and processes (FEPs) that need to be considered in such an analysis, (2) developing the tools needed to model the relevant FEPs in a postclosure performance assessment, and (3) conducting analyses both with and without the occurrence of a postclosure criticality and comparing the results. This paper describes progress in this area of research and presents the results to date of analyzing the consequences of a postulated steady-state criticality in a hypothetical saturated shale repository. Preliminary results indicate that postclosure criticality would not affect repository performance.