Draft:NearStar Fusion

  • Comment: Sourcing is very weak; a number of the ref 11 onwards sources are to SEO / press release republishers such as Technical.ly. Tagishsimon (talk) 04:38, 22 November 2023 (UTC)
  • Comment: Reads primarily as an advertisement, with no claim to notability besides merely existing. Talks about the grants they've received and what they're pursuing, but most coverage seems primary. The recently added sources came from company interviews. Utopes (talk / cont) 09:13, 11 November 2023 (UTC)
  • Comment: Where are the secondary sources establishing notability? Drmies (talk) 17:25, 10 November 2023 (UTC)

NearStar Fusion
Company typePrivate
IndustryEnergy
Founded2021 (2021)
Headquarters
Chantilly, Virginia
,
US
Key people
Dr. Douglas Witherspoon (Founder, Chief Scientist)
Amit Singh (CEO)
Chris Faranetta (VP and Co-Founder)
Number of employees
5 (2021)
Websitewww.nearstarfusion.com

NearStar Fusion is an American company developing fusion power plants based on hypervelocity plasma railgun technology. The company is pursuing a pulsed impact fusion method with magnetized deuterium/deuterium fuel targets.

History edit

NearStar Fusion was founded in April of 2021 by Dr. Douglas Witherspoon and Chris Faranetta. Doug and Chris previously worked at HyperJet Fusion together where they designed and developed plasma guns in partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory for over a decade.

Dr. Witherspoon has a PhD in Plasma Physics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and was the former president of the Washington Academy of Sciences. Doug has 6 patents.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] in pulsed energy technologies and a number of publications[7] [8] [9] [10] related to railguns.

Amit Singh joined NearStar Fusion in March of 2023[11] initially as the Director of Corporate Development and getting promoted to CEO in May 2023.

Concept edit

NearStar Fusion was initially pursuing an approach called Hypervelocity Gradient Field Fusion (HGFF)[12][13] and modified their approach to a pulsed impact approach using Magnetized target fusion.[14] The fuel used in the magnetized targets is designed for deuterium-deuterium (D-D).

Grants edit

  • November 3, 2023 - Grant from Fairfax Founders Fund (FFF)[15]
  • August 25, 2023 - Phase I SBIR grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF)[16]
  • March 15, 2023 - Grant from Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC)[17]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Via, Witherspoon, Ryan (2005-01-04). "Switch Contact Device for Interrupting High Current, High Voltage, AC and DC Circuits". USPTO.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Witherspoon, Massey, Mozhi, Kruczynski, Ryan (2004-07-27). "Dynamic Consolidation of Powders Using a Pulsed Energy Source". USPTO.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Witherspoon, Massey (2000-09-26). "Pulsed Electrothermal Powder Spray". USPTO.
  4. ^ Witherspoon, Massey, Kincaid (1999-12-14). "High Velocity Pulsed Wire Arc Spray". USPTO.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ Witherspoon, Kincaid, Massey (1999-10-26). "Pulsed Plasma Jet Paint Removal". USPTO.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ Witherspoon, Massey (1999-08-10). "Pulsed High Energy Synthesis of Fine Metal Powders". USPTO.
  7. ^ Burton, Witherspoon, Goldstein (1991-10-01). "Performance of a Self-Augmented Railgun". Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 70, pp. 3907-3911.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. ^ Witherspoon, Burton, Goldstein (1989-06-01). "Railgun Experiments with Lexan Insulators". Special Issue on Electromagnetic Launchers, IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Vol. 17, No. 3, Pp. 353-359. 17 (3): 353. Bibcode:1989ITPS...17..353W. doi:10.1109/27.32241.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ Burton, Goldstein, Tidman, Wang, Winsor and Witherspoon (1986-11-01). "EMET Technology for Rail Launchers". IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. Mag-22, Pp. 1410-1415. 22 (6): 1410. Bibcode:1986ITM....22.1410B. doi:10.1109/TMAG.1986.1064670.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ Witherspoon, Burton and Goldstein (1991-01-01). "A Second Generation EMET Railgun for Secondary Arc Studies". IEEE Trans. On Magnetics, Vol. 27, Pp. 91-96. 27: 91. Bibcode:1991ITM....27...91W. doi:10.1109/20.101000.
  11. ^ Technical.ly (2023-11-21). "Chantilly startup NearStar Fusion is developing a new form of energy tech". Technical.ly.
  12. ^ FairfaxTimes (2023-03-24). "Local fusion energy company commissions new experiment". FairfaxTimes.
  13. ^ WRAL (2023-05-19). "Climate hope: Fusion dream moving closer to reality as clean power source". WRALTechWire.
  14. ^ NYT (2023-11-13). "Start-Ups With Laser Beams: The Companies Trying to Ignite Fusion Energy". The New York Times.
  15. ^ FFF (2023-11-03). "Fairfax Founders Fund Grant Winners". Fairfax County.
  16. ^ NSF (2023-08-25). "SBIR Phase I: Hypervelocity Gradient Field Fusion". NSF.
  17. ^ VIPC (2023-03-15). "VIPC Awards Commonwealth Commercialization Fund Grant to NearStar Fusion Inc". EIN.

External links edit