A Commercial Roadmap to Volumetric Neutron Sources
On April 20th, nTtau Digital hosted a meeting in Santa Fe focused on volumetric neutron sources (VNS), and it turned into one of the most consequential days we've had this year for fusion commercialisation. The event drew wide attendance, including New Mexico Secretary of Economic Development Rob Black, Deputy Secretary Nora Sackett, and other members of the state's Economic Development Department. What we found was a state genuinely receptive to building a VNS industry within its borders, and a room full of fusion companies ready to talk seriously about how to get there.
A Cohort Forms
The meeting was organized as a Fusion Igniter event, and one of its clearest outcomes was the formation of a capability cohort: roughly eight companies who came together to map out what a fusion developer actually needs on the path to a working volumetric neutron source.
Between us, the cohort spans the full pipeline:
Conceptual design - nTtau Digital and Core 3
Engineering design - Woodruff Engineering Inc (https://woodruffeng.com/ ) and CAMINNO (https://caminno.ai/ )
Materials down-selection - Extreme Materials (https://www.linkedin.com/company/extreme-materials-ai/)
Remote maintenance planning - Maximum Robotics (https://www.maximumrobotics.energy/)
Business strategy - Fusion Advisory Services (https://fas.energy/ )
It's a rare thing to have design-for-manufacture, materials science, and remote maintenance planning in the room together from day one, but that's exactly what a VNS programme needs. Building in design-for-maintenance early, with genuine remote access and serviceability, is one of those decisions that's cheap now and enormously expensive to retrofit later. We've since done a deep dive into the market opportunity around VNS applications - everything from nuclear waste transmutation to isotope production - and the potential revenue pathways are exciting.
Momentum Builds
Shortly after the Santa Fe meeting, the U.S. Department of Energy opened a call for proposals for volumetric neutron source development. Our cohort responded as a unified capability team, offering the full stack of services to any fusion company that wants to pursue a VNS, whether or not they were in the room in Santa Fe.
The conversation hasn't stopped there. A further VNS meeting was hosted by EPRI, underlining how active this space has become. That said, we're realistic about federal funding timelines and probabilities. As a business, our preference is to contract directly with the companies we want to work for to offer something of clear value, negotiate it specifically, and turn plans into things that actually get built, rather than produce studies for government review. nTtau Digital is leading the outreach to the fusion companies who are engaged in Santa Fe, with the goal of getting concept-level design work underway directly.
Where NuPlant™ Fits In
At the center of our offering is NuPlant™ - a licensable, whole-plant design and costing platform that lets us stand up a complete power plant configuration in a matter of days, for any fusion architecture: tokamak, stellarator, mirror, IFE, or magneto-inertial fusion.
NuPlant™ is built on standardized cost accounts inherited from IAEA, Generation IV, ARPA-E, and EPRI frameworks, so every design we produce is auditable and comparable across concepts. Built into the platform are the optimization workflows needed to refine a whole plant or to focus on the specific components that drive the majority of its cost. That includes the built environment: we have spent the last three years developing methods for positioning buildings to minimize the cost of piping, conduit, and cabling runs, often among the most expensive line items in a real plant layout. Put together, this means a fusion company engaging with our cohort can go from a standing start to a costed, optimised conceptual power plant design - first wall to site boundary - in days, not months.
What's Next
The rise of volumetric neutron sources as a near-term commercial target, in New Mexico and beyond, is one of the more exciting developments we've seen in fusion this year. We're keen to hear from fusion developers, EPCs, and other organizations who want to explore what a VNS programme could look like for them, and to move quickly from concept to something that can actually be built.
If that's you, get in touch with our team at nTtau Digital.
