Fusion energy is the goal SHINE was built around. Getting there will take more than a reaction that works. A fusion power plant will have to be built reliably, run safely, maintained for decades and delivered at a cost that makes sense.
Every technology faces the same questions once it meets the real world: Can you make it reliably? Can you maintain it? Can you meet regulatory standards? Can you control costs? Can you solve problems when something doesn’t go according to plan?
We’ve spent 16 years answering those questions with technology at work for real customers, from fusion-powered testing systems to medical isotopes. Every system we put to work builds on what we learned in the lab, and every lesson is one we’re carrying toward fusion energy.
The real world changes the problem
Moving technology into a commercial environment exposes things you can’t always see during development. Equipment needs maintenance. Something that works once needs to work again and again. Documentation must hold up. Costs become tangible. Customers expect results.
This is true in any industry, but the nuclear industry adds another layer: every one of those challenges has to be solved around radiation effects and under safety standards that are, rightly, among the strictest anywhere.
What happens in the field also makes its way back into the technology. A maintenance issue can influence the next design. A production bottleneck can reveal where something needs to change. A customer requirement can expose a problem engineers need to solve. The technology gets better because teams see firsthand what happens when it meets the real world.
Most industries take this process for granted, iterating through actual production. In nuclear, it’s far less common to get this practice.
Reliability: delivering when customers are counting on us
Our testing systems put sophisticated fusion technology to work for customers who need answers. Radiography helps them see inside components without destroying them. Radiation-effects testing shows how technologies hold up in demanding radiation environments.
In both cases, customers are relying on the results. Equipment needs to be available, tests need to be performed consistently and problems need to be solved when they arise. Years of doing that have shaped how our teams design equipment, maintain systems and respond when something doesn’t go according to plan.
That work has taught us something development alone can’t: what it takes to keep sophisticated technology working when customers are counting on it. A fusion power plant will face that same expectation every day.
Quality and regulation: no such thing as close enough
Producing medical isotopes introduced a different set of demands because the material we produce ultimately serves patients. Our non-carrier-added lutetium-177 (n.c.a. Lu-177) and technetium-99 (Tc-99m) operate within rigorous quality, manufacturing and regulatory environments, supporting therapies that help doctors find and treat cancer.
Materials have to meet specifications, production has to be tightly controlled and the documentation behind it all has to stand up to review. There’s no such thing as “close enough.” Carrier-added forms of Lu-177 contain impurities that bind less efficiently to tumors, leaving more residual isotope and a higher risk of side effects. The non-carrier-added form we produce avoids that, and the difference comes down to how the material is made.
Working in nuclear medicine has pushed us to develop disciplines that go well beyond the underlying science. It means creating the systems around the technology that allow it to be manufactured consistently and responsibly.
In testing, a missed window costs a customer time and trust. In nuclear medicine, a product that doesn’t meet spec doesn’t reach the patient at all.
Fusion energy will have to meet demanding standards of its own. We intend to be ready for them.
Scale: taking proven processes much bigger
Nuclear fuel recycling is a more complex challenge, bringing together chemistry, nuclear engineering, materials, safeguards, process design and other disciplines. Much of what makes it harder is scale. Once complete, our Chrysalis facility is expected to process on the order of 15 metric tons of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) per year. A commercial recycling facility could process about 2,000 metric tons per year. The problem grows in the same way, from strengthening one supply chain for nuclear medicine to supporting fuel security across the nuclear energy industry.
But we don’t start that work from zero. Our teams already know what it means to maintain sophisticated nuclear equipment for customers. They know how to manufacture within demanding quality systems. And they’ve seen firsthand what happens when a design assumption meets reality.
We can bring that perspective to nuclear fuel recycling while developing the additional knowledge the work demands. Most of the major processes will already be running at Chrysalis. The work ahead is taking them to a much larger scale.
Why it all points to fusion
Fusion energy will present challenges we haven’t encountered before. We expect that. But many of the questions will be familiar: Can we design it? Can we build it? Can we operate it reliably? Can we meet the standards around it? Can we make the economics work?
Every system we build and run today is practice for answering them. Reliability, quality and scale are the same disciplines fusion energy will demand.
Fusion energy is the biggest challenge we’ve set out to solve. We intend to arrive at it with more than a technology. We intend to arrive knowing how to put that technology to work.