創業公司探索核能發電新玩法
Nothing captures how fashionable the startup has become quite like crowdfunding. The craze for raising contributions via websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo is helping to launch companies from scooter manufacturers to lightbulb vendors to filmmakers.
沒有什麼比衆籌更能說明創業的火爆了。很多人瘋狂地通過Kickstarter和Indiegogo等網站資助別人搞創業，接受資助的企業有中既有做腳踏車的，也有做電燈泡的，甚至還有拍電影的。Now, even nuclear fusion is game.
現在，就連研究核聚變的都上了這條船。Yes, the Holy Grail of cheap, clean, safe, plentiful, low-carbon energy that has remained 40 years in the future since scientists proposed it over half a century ago has entered the crowdsourcing era. International government projects like ITER in France and the National Ignition Facility in California may have spent billions of dollars in pursuit of the technology, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be a little grassroots action, too.
核能由於具有廉價、清潔、安全、低碳、用之不竭的特點而被喻爲能源中的“聖盃”。自從半個多世紀前，科學家們提出利用核能的設想以來，有40多年的時間裏，核能在我們眼中似乎都是未來才能享受到的福利。如今這種“高大上”的能源也終於進入了衆包時代。雖然有些核能項目動輒要花費幾十億美元，比如法國的國際熱核實驗反應堆（ITER）和美國加州的美國國家點火裝置（National Ignition Facility），但是這並不意味着在覈能領域就完全沒有草根階層可以施展拳腳的空間。
LPP Fusion, a tiny company based in Middlesex, N.J., launched in May an Indiegogo campaign to raise $200,000—loose change in this business—that it believes will help it reach a major fusion development milestone in a year and commercialize fusion reactors by 2020.
美國新澤西州米德爾塞克斯市的一家叫LPP Fusion的小公司今年五月在Indiegogo上發起了一項募集20萬美金的活動。雖然20萬美金在這個行業裏微乎其微，但這家公司相信，這筆錢能幫助它在一年之內完成核聚變領域的一項具有里程碑意義的研究。這樣，到2020年，它的研究成果就可以轉化爲核聚變反應堆。LPP (it stands for “Lawrenceville Plasma Physics“) is representative of a new class of companies emerging to address the world’s energy crisis: Nuclear startups. Dozens of small new reactor companies are either chasing the elusive fusion dream or pursuing fission designs that trump those on the market today. All are promising to deliver a knock-out blow to the carbon-intensive fossil fuels that bedevil the world with environmental impact and volatile geopolitics and economics. Many of these innovative firms are positioning their reactors not just for electricity, but also to provide clean heat for high temperature industrial processes and for water desalination.
LPP公司（全名意爲“勞倫斯維爾等離子物理公司”）代表了一羣致力於解決全球能源問題的創業公司——即核能創業公司。現在有好幾十家規模較小的新型反應堆公司要麼在繼續研究晦澀的聚變問題，要麼在絞盡腦汁地設計優於市場現有方案的裂變反應堆。所有這些公司最終都想來一個“一鳴驚人”，徹底取代給人類造成了深重的環境影響和地緣政治衝突的化石能源。很多創業公司的新型反應堆不僅致力於提供電力，還致力於爲各種高溫工業流程提供清潔的熱能，以及用於海水淡化等造福人類的事業。While LPP might be the only crowdfunded member of the group, it is determined like its young peers to shake up the staid nuclear industry. Reactor designs have not fundamentally changed since utilities first connected fission machines to the grid in the 1950s, marking a conservatism that has mired nuclear in the era of black-and-white television while colorful possibilities abound. The startups aim to brighten the palette.
儘管LPP可能是核能創業公司中唯一一個靠衆籌來拉資金的公司，但它也像它的小兄弟們一樣，立志要把死氣沉沉的核能行業攪得風生水起。自從上世紀50年代，科學家們第一次把裂變反應堆接入到輸電網絡時起，直到現在，核反應堆的設計都沒有任何根本性的改良。這種保守主義做法就像在黑白電視時代的末期，儘管支持彩色顯像的技術已經四處開花，但廠商仍然抱着黑白電視拒絕進步一樣。今天的這些核能創業公司就是要讓核能板塊“亮”起來。For LPP, that would mean not only delivering fusion—melding atoms together rather than fission’s waste-creating process of splitting them apart—but it would also eliminate the time-honored need for costly turbines and generators. Nuclear power, including most fusion concepts, functions mechanically the same way fossil fuel plants do by creating heat to produce steam to drive a turbine. LPP is working on a type of fusion called “aneutronic” that emits charged particles for electricity.
對於LPP公司來說，這意味着它不僅僅要研究出可控核聚變方案（而不是產生有害廢物的核裂變反應），還要取消這個過程中歷來對於汽輪機和發電機的需求——核能（包括大多數核聚變方案）的基本原理與化石燃料發電廠的原理是一致的，都是先產生熱能，然後產生蒸汽，然後驅動汽輪機發電。而LPP公司研究的一種核聚變形式又叫做“無中子核聚變”，可以釋放帶電粒子來發電。“The nuclear industry is stuck using the same method for making electricity that utilities have used since the days of Thomas Edison—generate heat to make steam to drive a turbine and generator,” says Eric Lerner, president of LPP Fusion. “We can change all that. We can convert energy directly into electricity and slash costs.”
LPP Fusion公司總裁埃裏克o勒那說：“核能行業的發電方法還停留在愛迪生那個時代——通過發熱產生蒸汽來驅動汽輪機和發電機。而我們可以改變這一點，我們可以把能源直接轉變爲電能，同時大量削減成本。”First, he’ll need the $200,000 he seeks on Indiegogo (he has until July 5 to raise it), which would buy him some fancy new beryllium electrodes that would withstand rigors far better than the copper variety that LPP has been using. He hopes to install them by the end of this year in his experimental fusion reactor, which Lerner operates at the Friendly Storage premises in Middlesex, a place otherwise full of surplus boxes and furniture.
首先，勒那需要在Indiegogo上募集到20萬美元，用來購買比LPP正在使用的銅電極更能經受極端情況考驗的鈹電極。勒那希望在年底前將鈹電極安裝在LPP那臺試驗性的聚變反應堆上，這個反應堆設置在米德爾塞克斯市的一處庫房裏，那個地方原本堆滿了箱子和傢俱。Lerner is boldly confident that the beryllium would by the middle of next year enable his lab to overcome the problem that has vexed fusion projects forever: It would harness more energy out of its reactor than what goes into it. Additional financing might then rush in. LPP will need $50 million in total, virtually nothing next to the nearly $18 billion that ITER has budgeted for only the next 10 years of an expected 30 years of construction and development of a 20-story “tokamak” facility.
勒那相信，在鈹電極的幫助下，到明年中旬，他的實驗室將克服一個長久以來一直困擾着核聚變研究的難題，讓我們從核聚變反應堆中獲得的能源超過我們投入的用於點燃反應堆的能源。如果試驗成功的話，屆時可能會有大量資金涌入。LPP的研究總共要花費5000萬美金，聽起來倒是不少，但相比之下ITER的核聚變項目預計需要30年的建設時間，光是頭10年的預算就高達180億美元，還要建築一個20層樓“託卡馬克”裝置。這樣看來，LPP的5000萬美金簡直太便宜了。With the financing, Lerner believes that by 2020 he could license the mass-production of small $300,000-to-$500,000 fusion machines—each the size of a one-car garage—with a capacity of 5 megawatts, enough to power 3,000 houses.
勒那相信，憑藉這筆資金，到2020年的時候，他的公司將能夠量產單價在30萬到50萬美元之間的小型核聚變發電機。每臺這種發電機的尺寸只有一個停車位那麼大，發電量達到500萬瓦特，足夠支持3000個家庭的用電量。If only he had the wherewithal of rival fusion startup Tri-Alpha Energy, which has rounded up over $140 million from Goldman Sachs, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, and Russian state-owned company Rusnano, among others. Like LPP, Irvine, Calif.-based Tri-Alpha hopes to develop an aneutronic machine that delivers electricity without using turbines.
可惜LPP的後盾遠遠不及競爭對手Tri-Alpha能源公司。這家公司已經從高盛（Goldman Sachs）、微軟（Microsoft）共同創始人保羅o艾倫、俄羅斯國有企業Rusnano等投資人處融到了1.4億美元資金。像LPP一樣，這家位於加州爾灣市的核能創業公司也希望開發出一臺無中子核聚變發電機，從而不需要藉助汽輪機也能發電。ITER and NIF, the government groups, are taking a more “conventional” fusion approach, aspiring to drive turbines with heat released by fusing isotopes of hydrogen. (In contrast, an aneutronic process tends to fuse standard hydrogen and boron.) So, too, are a number of startups that believe they can crack fusion long before the big science projects do by developing smaller machines (NIF’s facility is 3 football fields long and 10 stories tall) and deploying different technologies.
ITER和NIF這兩大政府機構則採取了更加“傳統”的核聚變方案，也就是通過融合氫的同位素氘和氚和釋放熱量，從而驅動汽輪機發電。（相比之下，無中子核聚變傾向於將標準的氫與硼進行融合）。此外還有一大批創業公司相信，他們可以比這些舉傾國之力的大科學項目提前研究出可控核聚變技術，並且開發出小型的核聚變發電機（NIF的核聚變設施有3個足球場那麼大，10層樓高）。“We liken it to the Human Genome Project or SpaceX, where large government programs were ultimately outrun by more nimble and more practical innovation in the private sector,” notes Nathan Gilliland, CEO of General Fusion near Vancouver, Canada. General Fusion has raised $32 million from sources including the Canadian oil company Cenovus and Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive.
總部位於加拿大溫哥華附近的通用聚變（General Fusion）公司的CEO南森o吉利蘭德指出：“我們可以把它與人類基因組計劃或太空探索技術公司（Space X）做一下比較，因爲在後兩者的領域中，大型政府性項目最終也是被私人領域的更靈活、更實用的創新超越了。”通用聚變公司從加拿大石油公司Cenovus和亞馬遜（Amazon）CEO傑夫o貝佐斯等投資人那裏融得3200萬美元資金。As intriguing as fusion is, there is probably more startup activity in fission, where novel approaches promise great improvements over the industry’s addiction to fissioning solid uranium fuel rods then cooling and moderating them with water.
雖然核聚變的前景非常誘人，但更多的創業公司可能活躍在覈裂變領域，他們研究的一些新方法比行業現有的對鈾燃料棒進行裂變然後用水冷卻、穩定的方法要先進得多。A host of startups are experimenting with different approaches including the use of liquid fuel, the use of solid fuel with different shapes (such as bricks or pebbles), and the use of alternative coolants and moderators such as salts and gases. Many of the designs draw on ideas that politics suppressed decades ago. Some, like Bill Gates-chaired TerraPower in Bellevue, Wash., are designing “fast reactors” that don’t moderate neutrons. Some envision using the element thorium instead of uranium.
很多公司正在圍繞新型的核裂變方法展開試驗，比如使用液態燃料，或是使用不同形狀的固態燃料（如磚型或卵型），以及使用鹽或氣體作爲冷卻劑與緩和劑等等。許多設計都吸收了幾十年前不被政府允許的理念。比如由比爾o蓋茨任董事長的泰拉能源公司（TerraPower）正在設計一種不需要對中子進行緩和的“快速反應堆”。有些公司則設想利用釷元素來代替鈾作爲裂變燃料。Between them, they portend leaps in safety, cut way down on nuclear waste, use “waste” as fuel, minimize weapons proliferation risks, slash costs and tremendously boost efficiencies. Many fit the “small modular” form that enables mass production and affordable incremental power. (Oregon startup NuScale Power recently secured $217 million in federal funds to develop a small but comparatively conventional reactor.)
很多創業公司的方案在提高核裂變安全性、大大減少核廢料、變“廢物”爲燃料、最大程度降低武器化風險、降低成本和提高效率方面都具有廣闊的前景。許多方案都具有“小型模塊化”的特徵，能夠滿足量產和經濟性發電的需要。（俄勒岡州的創業公司NuScale能源公司最近獲得了2.17億美元的聯邦基金，用於研發一種小型的、但相對傳統的核反應堆。）“There is a growing market pull for innovation in the nuclear space, so you’re beginning to see a blossoming of startup companies doing different things in nuclear,” says Simon Irish, CEO of startup Terrestrial Energy, Mississauga, Canada, which is developing a “molten salt” reactor (MSR) based on liquid fuel.
加拿大米西索加市創業公司Terrestrial Energy的CEO西蒙o艾裏什指出：“市場對核能領域創新的拉動力越來越強。所以我們開始看到，很多在覈能領域從事不同研究的創業公司如雨後春筍般涌現出來。”艾裏什的公司正在研發一種基於液態燃料的“熔鹽”反應堆（MSA）。In the U.S., Russ Wilcox, CEO of Cambridge, Mass.-based MSR developer Transatomic Power, implores the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to broaden its focus beyond conventional reactor safety, which he says “freezes progress.”
在美國，總部位於馬薩諸塞州劍橋市的MSR開發公司Transatomic Power首席執行官拉斯o威爾克斯正在請求美國核管理委員會（the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission）放寬對傳統核反應域安全的限制，稱這種限制“凍結了進步”。Many observers believe that countries other than the U.S., such as Canada and China, will deploy first. Beijing is funding innovative Chinese fission projects, with collaboration from the U.S. DOE. Meanwhile, Western companies seek funds. Like Cenovus at General Fusion, more oil companies might pony up, because they want clean heat to process petroleum. As Fortune reported last month, a lack of industry funding appears to have slowed progress in DOE’s mission to develop an advanced reactor.
許多觀察人士認爲，除了美國之外，加拿大和中國等國有望成爲第一批部署新型核能技術的國家。中國政府正在美國能源部的協助下大力投資新型核裂變項目。同時像Cenovus公司在通用聚變公司所扮演的角色一樣，更多石油公司可能會投資核能項目，因爲他們也需要清潔的熱能來進行石油加工。正如《財富》雜誌上月報道的那樣，由於缺乏行業投資的緣故，美國能源部開發一個先進的核反應堆的計劃似乎已經放緩。LPP Fusion doesn’t seem to be worried. For the young company, the next financing stage could simply be a matter of warming up the crowd.
LPP的核聚變研究則似乎不用擔心錢的事。這家年輕公司的下一輪融資可能很容易就點燃大衆的熱情。
