This month, LPPFusion officially joined the PROBONO international research collaboration, which brings together researchers working toward proton-boron (pB11) fusion, also called hydrogen-boron fusion. PROBONO is funded by the European Union and was initially limited to laser-based fusion, but has now expanded to include all approaches using hydrogen-boron fuel. Unfortunately, the name, which is legal jargon for “for free”, is apt as the amount of the funding is at the moment very small and is limited to travel and administrative costs, not research.
However, the existence of the organization just as an official network will make setting up collaborations among pB11 fusion researchers much easier. We at LPPFusion have joined both the experimental and simulation working groups and expect to be starting concrete collaborations in the coming months. Such collaborations can substantially speed up the advance toward fusion with this ideal fuel, which produces no nuclear waste and allows cheap direct conversion to electricity.
