David Kirtley
David Kirtley is an American plasma physicist and co-founder and CEO of Helion Energy, a private nuclear fusion company headquartered in Everett, Washington. Kirtley holds degrees in nuclear engineering and has worked on fusion energy systems for more than a decade.
Helion Energy
Helion's approach uses a linear-confinement design that compresses deuterium–helium-3 plasma to fusion conditions and extracts energy directly through electromagnetic induction from charged fusion products, bypassing the intermediate steam-turbine cycle used by conventional nuclear fission plants. The company name derives from the helion — the nucleus of helium-3 — a fusion product of the deuterium–helium-3 reaction that produces energy without generating the neutrons that activate surrounding materials in deuterium–tritium fusion.
Kirtley estimates that the deuterium available in Earth's oceans alone could supply humanity's current electricity needs for 100 million to one billion years. He objects to calling fusion devices "reactors," noting that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission defines a reactor as a device designed to sustain a nuclear fission chain reaction; fusion has no chain reaction and turns off the moment fuel input stops. Helion therefore uses the term fusion generator.