Controllable nuclear fusion enterprise ‘Hanhai Juneng’ receives tens of millions of angel round financing

August 19, 2024

Recently, Hanhai Juneng, a linear controllable nuclear fusion enterprise, announced the completion of tens of millions of yuan in angel round financing, led by Huaying Capital, with substantial funds and Qiji Chuangtan following suit. The funds raised in this round of financing will mainly be used to establish a nuclear fusion team and complete the design of the first generation device. Previously, Hanhai Juneng had also received a seed round investment from Qingzhou Capital.

Hanhai Juneng (Chengdu) Technology Co., Ltd. was established on December 30, 2022. The company focuses on the research and development of field inversion configuration devices (FRCs) with low-cost commercial power generation advantages, as well as their supporting plasma sources and diagnostic platforms. It provides cost-effective and highly reliable core components and overall solutions for future commercial fusion power reactors.

In the era of AI high computing power, there is a huge explosion in demand for electricity

Energy is an eternal topic for humanity. From drilling wood for fire, water wheels and windmills, coal mining and charcoal burning, to steam engines, internal combustion engines, trains, cars, airplanes, rockets, all rely on the drive of energy. From traditional fossil fuels such as coal and oil to new energy sources such as solar energy, wind energy, ocean energy, geothermal energy, and nuclear energy, the forms of energy utilization are becoming increasingly diverse and efficient in terms of environmental protection. In the 1950s, people began researching controllable nuclear fusion in pursuit of higher energy efficiency and more environmentally friendly energy methods.

However, due to high technological and financial barriers, for a long time, controllable nuclear fusion was mostly developed guided by national investment, with less participation from private enterprises and social capital. The most representative project among them is the International Thermonuclear Fusion Facility (ITER) project, which began construction in 2006. It brings together major technological powers such as China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia, and the United States. The original plan had a construction cost and time of 5 billion US dollars and 10 years respectively, but the total investment of the project has now exceeded 20 billion euros, and there is still no upper limit to the investment.

Until recent years, with the growth of demand and the improvement of technology, controllable nuclear fusion has entered the engineering stage from the basic science stage.

From a demand perspective, with the rapid development of AI, society requires more efficient energy. According to the latest report released by Digital Information World, the energy consumption of the data center for training AI models is three times that of conventional cloud computing. OpenAI training GPT-3 consumes 1.287 GWh of electricity, and the operation of the data center to maintain ChatGPT consumes a huge amount of electricity. The monthly electricity cost is close to $2 million, which is equivalent to the average monthly electricity consumption of 275000 Chinese people. Sam Altman once said, “The two ‘currencies’ of the future will be computing power and energy, and we have not fully recognized the demand for energy from AI.” Currently, Sam Altman has also invested in this field.

On the technical level, on the one hand, high-temperature superconducting materials have made multiple breakthroughs in recent years, possessing stronger magnetic fields, which greatly reduces the size and cost of mainstream tokamak devices. Compact nuclear fusion equipment has been validated, and the American commercial company CFS (Commonwealth Fusion Systems) is the creator of this breakthrough; On the other hand, linear devices are gradually being validated by some research teams and commercial companies, represented by Tri Alpha Energy (TAE) and Helion Energy invested by Sam Altman in the United States.

Under the dual catalysis, the number of startups in the field of controllable nuclear fusion has rapidly increased. According to the “2024 Fusion Industry Report” released by the Fusion Industry Association (FIA) in the United States, the number of global fusion energy companies continues to increase, with 3 new companies added in 2024, bringing the total number to 45, and a cumulative financing of $7.1 billion, of which $426 million comes from government and other public funds.

Benchmark Helion Energy

Currently, achieving faster, smaller scale, and lower cost commercialization is the pursuit of almost all controllable nuclear fusion companies.

At present, there are several controllable nuclear fusion enterprises in China. As the Tokamak technology route is currently the oldest, most mature, and most internationally cooperative solution, most enterprises have chosen to develop tokamak technology routes, including compact tokamak, spherical tokamak, and collision fusion spherical tokamak.

Tokamak devices can certainly achieve the goal of power generation, but it is obvious that everyone underestimates the challenges of commercialization of Tokamaks. The high construction costs make it difficult to achieve commercial closure in the short term. “In the view of Xiang Jiang, CEO of Hanhai Energy, regardless of the huge financial support required for large Tokamaks such as the ITER project, even the investment required for miniaturized Tokamaks is not small, as can be seen from the financing amount of CFS.

On the other hand, linear devices not only have the advantage of magnetic field confinement of plasma, but also are simple and convenient to construct, easy to replace, and have low cost. At the same time, it is also possible to achieve a power generation method that directly converts plasma kinetic energy into electrical energy, which can significantly improve energy conversion efficiency. Over the 26 years since its establishment, TAE has iterated 5 generations of equipment with only a $1.2 billion investment, and is currently building its 6th generation equipment; Helion Energy was founded in 2013 and rapidly iterated to the 7th generation. With such a fast iteration speed, it can solve engineering problems more quickly and promote commercial power generation more quickly. Therefore, Helion Energy proposed to supply 50 megawatts of electricity to Microsoft by 2028, and the cost of electricity per kilowatt hour will gradually decrease to one cent per kilowatt hour in the future.

Compared to Helion Energy, Hanhai Energy focuses on low-cost and fast iteration, and is the first linear controllable nuclear fusion company in China.

Hanhai Energy Concentrator uses an innovative high-density field inversion device, which is a relatively simple magnetic confinement system. The current generated by the internal plasma will form a magnetic field opposite to the external magnetic field, which makes the plasma form a closed magnetic field structure as a whole, thus achieving confinement of the plasma.

Technological innovation cannot be separated from top teams in the industry, and the Hanhai team has extensive industry experience. Xiang Jiang studied plasma at the University of Science and Technology of China for ten years with a bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree. He participated in the related work of tokamak technology route and worked at the Beijing Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics. He has participated in the experimental design and theoretical research of multiple national level major projects for laser inertial confinement fusion, and has more than 20 years of research and work experience in various mainstream technology directions of controllable nuclear fusion; The Chief Scientific Advisor is a top expert in the field of internationally renowned magnetic confinement controlled nuclear fusion engineering; Plasma physics scientist is a well-known controllable nuclear fusion scientist in China, who has led multiple projects or projects such as the National Major Program, the Ministry of Science and Technology 973 Program, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. He has won the first prize for military scientific and technological progress and published more than 100 papers.

Long term focus on ultimate fusion energy

Realize the application of neutron source products in the short to medium term

In order to achieve the goal of fusion power generation, Hanhai Energy has planned a “step-by-step” development strategy and adopted a “laying eggs along the way” mechanism: by early 2025, the first generation neutron source engineering prototype will be developed and constructed, successfully lighting up the plasma and launching the market application of accelerator neutron source BNCT radiation therapy for tumors; By the end of 2025, the device will be upgraded and optimized to form the first generation nuclear neutron source device, which will be commercially implemented in medical isotope production, neutron imaging, and nuclear waste neutron irradiation and transformation treatment; From 2026 to 2030, through rapid and multiple iterations of the device, we will collaborate with nuclear power owners to build a fusion demonstration power plant by the end of 2030, achieving an energy output of 50MW and realizing fusion power generation; In the early 2030s, commercial nuclear fusion devices with a power output of over 100MW and significant cost advantages per kilowatt hour will be developed to achieve the industrialization of fusion power plants.

Taking boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) and medical isotope supply in radiation therapy, which are two hundred billion dollar application markets, as an example.

Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is a precise binary radiation therapy method induced at the cellular scale. BNCT treatment for tumors first involves injecting boron delivery agents into the patient, causing them to aggregate at the tumor site. Then, a thermal neutron beam is used to irradiate the tumor site, producing alpha particles with high linear energy transfer (LET) and selectively killing tumor cells through nuclear fission reactions between thermal neutrons and 10B inside the tumor, as well as recoil 7Li nuclei. Boron delivery agents themselves have low toxicity and no radioactivity; The energy of thermal neutrons is relatively low, and treatment usually only requires 1-2 neutron exposures, avoiding radiation damage as much as possible. At present, BNCT has been successfully applied in the treatment of recurrent gliomas, recurrent head and neck tumors, and malignant melanomas. It has also been clinically tested for other common tumors such as liver cancer, lung cancer, and prostate cancer, and has shown good therapeutic effects.

In March of this year, Xiamen Hongai Hospital BNCT Tumor Center established a cooperation with American fusion company TAE. TAE provides neutron source products for cancer treatment at Hongai Hospital. Currently, the cooperation between the two parties has obtained a human clinical trial license and is about to obtain a Class III medical device registration certificate; At the end of July this year, the BNCT Research Center of the Tenth Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University (Dongguan People’s Hospital) started construction. The 12 story building will have about 300 research beds, which can be used for technology research and development in areas such as tumor treatment and biomedicine.

Medical isotopes play a crucial role in modern medicine, widely used in diagnosis, treatment, and research, continuously driving progress and innovation in medical imaging and radiation therapy. In recent years, the global supply of medical isotopes has relied on a few medical research reactors from countries and regions such as Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, South Africa, and Australia. Most of them have exceeded their service life and are facing a series of problems such as high maintenance costs, difficult waste disposal, and safety risks. It can be seen that the construction of a new type of medical isotope production reactor will not only alleviate the domestic supply and demand tension, but also create favorable conditions for “seizing” the international market. And nuclear fusion reactors can produce various radioactive isotopes, which can achieve partial domestic substitution.

Regarding this round of financing, Xiang Jiang said, “Thank you to the investors for their trust and support. This round of financing is the first and most crucial step for us to accelerate the commercialization of controllable nuclear fusion. We will introduce domestic and foreign industry experts, R&D and engineering talents to build a globally competitive early stage nuclear fusion team. At the same time, we will complete the physical design, engineering design, and R&D site selection of advanced field inversion devices. We will lay a solid foundation for building the first field inversion device in China next year.

Zhang Gaonan, Managing Partner of Huaying Capital, stated: “Controllable nuclear fusion is an important strategic layout for national energy security, and its cutting-edge technology research and development have always been highly valued. The policy side continues to guide private capital to actively participate in the field of nuclear fusion. Linear device technology constrains plasma by forming field inversion or magnetic mirrors, which can achieve lower construction costs, faster development iterations, lower maintenance difficulties, higher energy output density, and more flexible application scenarios. The Hanhai team combines industrial resources, technological accumulation, and commercialization capabilities, and has a solid cooperation foundation with multiple universities and research institutions. Based on the research and development of linear fusion devices, it promotes the industrialization of boron neutron capture therapy equipment. Huaying firmly believes in the development of China’s controllable nuclear fusion field and is willing to accompany Hanhai to constantly break through and move forward with determination.