Projects

Century is the centerpiece of Zap Energy's program developing and integrating power handling systems suitable for future power plants. Three primary technologies under development include high average-power repetitive pulsed power, high duty-cycle cathodes, and liquid metal wall systems. Century is capable of firing non-reacting hydrogen SFS Z-pinch plasmas into a liquid metal-lined container at sustained repetition rates on the order of 0.2 Hz. Century is based on FuZE device designs but is not operated with deuterium fuel gas in order to alleviate the need for radiation shielding from fusion byproducts. The pulsed power driver and liquid metal heat exchanger are both designed to sustain input powers of 100 kW.

The Fusion Z-pinch Experiment (FuZE) was initially designed in 2014 and 2015 at the University of Washington in Seattle as the successor to the ZaP and ZaP-HD flow z-pinch devices. Initial FuZE studies concentrated on neutron production, measurement, and analyses at up to 400 kA pinch currents. The FuZE power banks supported Z pinch lifetimes of several microseconds.

Following the incorporation of Zap Energy, the FuZE machine was moved from UW to a Zap Energy facility, pushing operation up to 500 kA pinch currents and pursuing further advancements in plasma operation. In 2022, both ion and electron temperatures in the 1-3 keV range were measured, consistent with thermal equilibrium, along with densities up to 5e17 cm-3 and pressures in the 100s of MPa. The thermonuclear nature of the neutron generation was confirmed, with axial extent of 10-50 cm. D-D neutron yields of ≈ 10e8 were observed, limited by the FuZE power bank's stored energy. In 2025 the FuZE device was decommissioned.

The Fusion Z-pinch Experiment 3 (FuZE-3) investigates compression methods for a sheared-flow-stabilized Z pinch. The device leverages multiple electrodes to inject magnetic flux around the pinch, thereby increasing the pinch current and decreasing pinch radius. FuZE-3 was commissioned at Zap Energy in 2025, demonstrating >1 GPa plasma pressures including multiple repeated shots with electron densities in the range of 3-5x10^24 m-3 and electron temperatures above 1 keV in early science campaigns.

The Z-FFR device was proposed by the China Academy of Engineering Physics as a nuclear fusion-fission hybrid device.

The device aims to use the neutrons produced from D-T fusion in a Z-Pinch configuration to generate additional energy from a fission blanket.