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What We Do
TAE’s path to delivering a utility-scale fusion power plant begins with its origins at UC Irvine in the 1990s. It was there that late physicist and TAE technology co-founder Dr. Norman Rostoker, along with current CEO Dr. Michl Binderbauer and others, recognized the shortcomings of available energy sources to meet electricity demand. They set out to create a revolutionary solution, which is now TAE’s proprietary concept: a compact, linear design that marries the deepest insights from accelerator physics and plasma physics called an advanced beam-driven Field-Reversed Configuration (FRC). This reactor technology is designed to operate with TAE’s preferred fuel source hydrogen-boron, the most environmentally friendly fuel for fusion, while also being capable of accommodating all available fusion fuel cycles.

As TAE’s founding members saw it, this approach was the most practical, providing a reliable, cost-effective and dispatchable carbon-free energy source with no nuclear meltdown risk, no radioactive waste, and no risk of proliferation.

Available virtually everywhere around the world with approximately 100,000 years of natural supply, hydrogen-boron fuel is non-radioactive, a.k.a. aneutronic. In its primary reaction, it produces only three helium atoms as a byproduct – a hallmark that inspired TAE’s original company name, Tri Alpha Energy.

Innovation in Fusion Technology
How We Do It
TAE employs a “money by milestone” model, which enforces a results-based approach to development. We raise only the amount of capital required to support the next phase of scientific advancement.

We have achieved proof of science with the ability to sustain plasma confinement at will at temperatures exceeding 70M degrees Celsius. We are the first in fusion research history to successfully form an FRC plasma using only neutral beam injection – a breakthrough that significantly reduces the cost and complexity of the FRC technique while improving performance. This achievement led to the creation of our “Norm” machine – a smaller, simpler fusion prototype that sets the standard for more efficient and more cost-effective commercial fusion power. The breakthrough also created a shorter commercial roadmap for TAE, leapfrogging a previously planned sixth research machine to pave the way for the start of TAE’s commercial era with the development of fusion power plant prototype, Da Vinci.

With more than $1.3 billion in private capital and more than 1,600 granted patents, TAE is on track to deliver hydrogen-boron fusion to the grid in the early 2030s.

Yet TAE isn’t solely developing fusion power – we’re also actively shaping a world ready to embrace it. We take every opportunity to maximize our fusion research, both with our extensive peer-reviewed publications and with our collaborators, to offer an overall improvement to quality of life with products from across our subsidiaries. That includes TAE Power Solutions creating a more efficient, resilient, upgradeable grid, from peak shaving and storage that accelerates our transition to an electrified world, and the development of novel cancer drugs and complementary treatment technology from TAE Life Sciences.

Together, this family of TAE companies is leveraging proprietary science and engineering to create a bright future for us all.