Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) recently joined representatives from higher education, including Columbia University, government officials from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Air Force Research Laboratory as well as tech industry guests and moderators from Google, Bloomberg, Fortune and venture capital at the Roadrunner Technology Forum in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The event connected innovators in energy, advanced manufacturing and other deep-tech areas to exchange ideas, discuss industry trends and the impact that public-private research collaborations - such as those facilitated by LLNL's Innovation and Partnerships Office (IPO) - can have on U.S. economic competitiveness. The event focused on ways these types of partnerships can help set up deep-tech start-ups for success.
Attendees and speakers discussed ways to help innovators think beyond one technology alone when addressing a problem. The group also discussed how building an ecosystem to broadly address that problem could help bring solutions to life in the market.
Jim McCarrick, representing LLNL's Inertial Fusion Energy Institutional Initiative, gave a presentation on translating the Laboratory's historic December 2022 achievement of fusion ignition into a viable source of commercial fusion power.
"The repeated achievement of fusion ignition at LLNL represents a sea change in the quest for fusion energy," said McCarrick. "Private investment is an important next step, so that we have a commercial ecosystem developed in time to support future power plants."
LLNL has achieved fusion ignition at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) five times since 2022, most recently producing a record high yield of 5.2 MJ of fusion energy from 2.2 MJ of laser energy. Data from these experiments supports the United States' stockpile stewardship program (SPP), which ensures the safety and effectiveness of the nation's aging nuclear arsenal.
In addition to providing invaluable data in support of the SSP, ignition experiments at NIF - which have generated more energy than used to start the reaction - represent the foundational science of a laser fusion energy source. LLNL's inertial fusion energy effort is laying the groundwork for pilot power plants, in partnership with private industry partners like those attending the Roadrunner Technology Forum.
Alex Hess, an LLNL business development executive in IPO supporting NIF technology and partnerships attended the event with McCarrick. "Having productive discussions and building new connections to find allies to bring these ideas to a reality is at the heart of what tech transfer does at national labs and why partnerships are so important to LLNL," he said.
