Avalanche Energy

[Skipjack]

Btw, according to Robin Langtry, it does 200 micro Ampere. In case anyone wanted to know.

[Giorgio]

Hehehe, only two years late
Still remarkable, I think.

Maybe they use the same calendar as Elon Musk
But I would add that "Remarkable" is still a diminutive compliment for the real implications that a commercially available 300kV feed-through will have for any fusion company out there.

I am really looking forward to the next couple of years, I would love to see Fusion become a reality before the 20th anniversary of this board.

[Munchausen]

Unfortunately, I am unable to grasp what a feedthrough to vacuum is, what it does and why it is a good thing to have. And particulary why this construction achieves such splendid performance on that key metric.

[Giorgio]

Unfortunately, I am unable to grasp what a feedthrough to vacuum is, what it does and why it is a good thing to have. And particulary why this construction achieves such splendid performance on that key metric.

To achieve Fusion one of the things that you need is an electric potential (a pressure) to accelerate the ions at a speed high enough to facilitate the fusion process.
For obvious reasons Fusion processes occur in vacuum and the electrical potential needed to accelerate these ions is supplied from the external enviroment to the machine inside the vacuum vessel by a connector called Electrical Feedtrough.
Until now the potential that the Feedthrough is able to sustain is limited due to an effect called surface Flashover (an electrical breakdown that occurs ON THE SURFACE of an insulator) that is limiting the useful potential to 15/20Kv for most applications.
Surface Flashover can be imagined as electrons that when they face too much opposing pressure from entering the insulator will squish out of it and percolate on the external surface of the insulator thus creating a leak in the insulation and a breakdown of the electrical flow.

This new Feedthrough is based on a completely different understanding on how Flashovers starts and propagate as well as on how the flow of electric power between the boundary of the vacuum vessel and our standard environment works.
I will not go into details (also because they are still very scarce), but It's a fascinating new way of interpreting and solving this problem and promises an order of magnitude improvement over existing technology..

Considering that High voltages Feedthrough are widely used into almost every plasma technology that we have today, from Linear accelerators to Microchip manufacturing to medical treatments and so on, I foresee that this new tech will really advance by leaps and bounds many sectors that might seem unrelated to Fusion development and that's why I am so excited about it.

[Munchausen]

To achieve Fusion one of the things that you need is an electric potential (a pressure) to accelerate the ions at a speed high enough to facilitate the fusion process.

[.......good text......]

that is limiting the useful potential to 15/20Kv for most applications.

[.......good text......]

am so excited about it.

Thanks for explaining. I have experience with electrical feedthroughs. But not to vacuum. They are called sparkplugs. But now I know why they work in the 20-30 000 volt range but not more.

To ensure a robust flashover.

Just another, perhabs really dumb question...

What about a porcelain vacuum vessel?

[Munchausen]

Anyway, 300 000 volt posted on X

https://x.com/AvalancheFusion/status/18 ... 8544854323

[Giorgio]

Thanks for explaining. I have experience with electrical feedthroughs. But not to vacuum. They are called sparkplugs. But now I know why they work in the 20-30 000 volt range but not more.

To ensure a robust flashover.

I think you mean to "prevent" a Flashover.

What about a porcelain vacuum vessel?

I am not sure if I fully understand what you mean with "porcelain vacuum vessel".
My understanding of your words is that you are thinking to place the conductor in a ceramic vessel and create a vacuum inside the vessel to create a vacuum around the conductor.
This will not solve the main issue of Flashovers that in most vacuum applications occurs at the interface between the passage from ambient to vacuum environment.

[baking]

New documentary on Avalanche Energy and their pivot over the Summer to a rotating plasma:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7Hfyz-JIDA

[Skipjack]

Yeah, but a rotating plasma comes with its own challenges. Looking at their simulation, it seems like they lost density in the process, which kind of makes sense.

[mvanwink5]

https://x.com/ChiefFusioneer

super vid, Andrew Côté did an interview with Robin Langtry of Avalanche Fusion on January 7. Avalanche is up to 40kv after iteratively solving many problems, huge breakthroughs. exciting progress. I put them up there with Zap Energy. Changed my view.

[Skipjack]

I am still very skeptical of their approach, but if they can make it, I would be very happy. I definitely give them the benefit of the doubt.

[crowberry]

The video is really interesting. I'm looking forward to hear results from their next experiments.
The direct link to that video is: https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1ZkKzZmyRQyKv.

[mvanwink5]

Key points in Avalanche Energy’s goal of small size are put into perspective by comparison to categorized Fusion industry approaches:
*Helion deals with stability by keeping fusion shorter than instability dynamics, but size is pushed due to huge acceleration, plasma compression solely by magnetics.
*TAE size is pushed due to the use of neutral beams for stability & plasma heating, plus relying solely on magnetic forces.
*Tokamaks also are massive due to stability issues, up to now stability is addressed by making the machines huge, but shear flow for stabilization is beginning to be used & will help with size.
*Zap Energy size?

The video is helpful in comparing the industry approaches. One massive advantage for Helion is the direct conversion integral with their approach. I am uncertain how AE will convert fusion to electric. Avalanche Energy small size may enable space travel.

SJ’s skepticism could be countered by Avalanche Energy's triple product rapid progress, but lack of published results supports skepticism. Lack of published results is a result of breakthrough speed & insufficient head count to support that work, yet hiring is justifiably in progress.

[crowberry]

Avalanche has published a few papers since they left stealth mode. They have also presented at the 65th and 66th Annual Meetings of the APS Division of Plasma Physics in 2023 and 2024. This is the latest publication that I found:Hammerhead: a compact 300 kV vacuum bushing, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66194-w.