Amazon’s Jeff Bezos invests in Canadian nuclear fusion startup

Tyler — Thu, 05 May 2011 03:23:06 +0000

Nuclear fusion startup General Fusion of Burnaby, B.C., has just closed a Series B Funding round worth $19.5 million, bringing its total haul to more than $33 million (likely higher, depending on where grants from Sustainable Development Technology Canada fit in). What’s interesting about this round is that Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, through his personal investment firm Bezos Expeditions, has decided to contribute. Bezos’ share of the round was not disclosed, but it’s a sign that the company’s Magnetized Target Fusion technology and its progress on building a prototype is beginning to attract some attention (as opposed to skepticism).

Another new investor in the round is Canadian oil company Cenovus Energy, through its Environmental Opportunity Fund. Bezos and Cenovus join returning investors Chrysalix Energy, GrowthWorks, Braemar Energy Ventures, Entrepreneurs Fund, Business Development Bank of Canada, and SET Venture Partners.

“We have a lot of work ahead of us, but the support of Cenovus Energy and Jeff Bezos, and the continued participation of every one of our venture capital investors, reflects the strength of our team, our plan, and the progress we have made.”

I have a chapter in my upcoming book, Mad Like Tesla, about General Fusion, its technology and its struggle to be taken seriously. It’s a great company taking the kinds of risks we need to see in this world. Check out this article I wrote on General Fusion two years ago for the Toronto Star, and here for MIT Technology Review.

Fusion power on the cheap? Not so outlandish…

Tyler — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:12:33 +0000

My feature in the Toronto Star today is about General Fusion, a Vancouver-area startup that believes it can build a prototype of a nuclear fusion reactor for $50 million within four years. While the multibillion-dollar ITER and U.S. fusion programs are using costly lasers and electromagnets to achieve “net gain” — that is, creating a fusion reaction that releases more energy than put it — the folks at General Fusion are cleverly pursuing a mechanical approach that uses concentrated sound waves to compress a deuterium-tritium plasma and trigger a fusion reaction. The key, as you’ll see, is the use of precision digital controls that simply didn’t exist back in the 1970s when the idea of magnetized target fusion was first explored.

You can read the article for more details and a deeper explanation of how it works. General Fusion recently secured $13.9 million from Sustainable Development Technology Canada so it can pursue its prototype development, contingent on the company raising another $30 million or so from private investors. SDTC‘s average deal size is around $3 million so the fact it’s giving General Fusion nearly five times that amount speaks to the credibility of what it’s doing.

My readers would know that I love an underdog, and this certaintly counts as one of them. Unfortunately, Canada doesn’t have a fusion program and all expertise and experience around nuclear technology is around fission reactors — i.e. Candu. But if General Fusion can show four years from now that its approach can achieve net-gain, the company will have no problem attracting investment and attention from some of the world’s best nuclear minds.

Clean Break » Magnetized Target Fusion

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos invests in Canadian nuclear fusion startup

Fusion power on the cheap? Not so outlandish…