First Light Fusion (FLF) recently announced they are abandoning projectile fusion for a new approach. Their 2025 approach is called FLARE, which stands for Fusion via Low-power Assembly and Rapid Excition." They describe it as a bold strategy to unlock fusion power. More than bold—it’s outrageous! Here is an excerpt, highlighting a problem they overlooked:
FLF claims that a 10 m radius spherical chamber (yellow) surrounded by 2 meters of lithium blanket (blue) is practical (green). However, a blanket this size would consume more lithium than a fleat of 125,000 electric cars, making it extremely impractical.
A better approach would use a contact blanket, which only requires 1% as much lithium for the same 2 m thickness.
FLF anticipates a 1000-tonne blanket (pink), but even at a density of 0.534 g/cc, the actual mass would be a staggering 1628 tonnes—628 more than claimed. They’re also mistaken in asserting that helium-6 (^6He) will be the primary problematic radioactive nuclide (pink). ^6He has a half-life of just 807 milliseconds and undergoes beta decay to lithium-6 (^6Li), making sustained buildup in the reactor impossible.