Speaker: Sam Wurzel, ARPA-E - Department of Energy

Title: How the Lawson Criterion explains the approaches being pursued by today’s fusion energy companies

Abstract: In 1955, John Lawson fist described the relationship between temperature T, the product of density n and energy confinement time τ, and the energy gain Q of a fusion plasma. This talk will describe and explain Lawson’s thought experiments and show how his result has shaped the three broad approaches to fusion energy: magnetic confinement fusion (MCF), inertial confinement fusion (ICF), and magneto-inertial fusion (MIF). The talk will conclude with a brief survey of the private sector fusion companies pursuing these approaches nearly 70 years after Lawson’s original analysis.

Bio: Sam Wurzel currently serves as Technology-to-Market advisor for the fusion energy portfolio at the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) at the US Department of Energy. As Technology-to-Market advisor he works with ARPA-E funded teams on their commercialization strategies and helps investors understand the fusion landscape. Prior to ARPA-E Sam studied plasma physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder and co-founded Octopart, the electronic component search engine.

This talk will be offered in a hybrid format. If you wish to participate remotely, please send an email to [email protected].