Who we are: Helion Fusion Technology and Electrical Engineering Overview

Summary

This document provides an overview of Helion’s pulsed fusion power technology, engineering history, and electrical power system design. It outlines key technical milestones from early prototypes (IPA in 2008) to the Polaris machine in 2024, describes the company’s approach using deuterium and helium-3 fuel, and answers frequently asked questions regarding their technology, hardware lifecycle, team background, and funding.

Who we are

Helion is building the world’s first fusion power plant to deliver clean, reliable, and abundant energy. Our engineering-first focus on efficient design and fast iteration allows us to bring fusion energy to the grid far sooner than previously thought possible. No longer decades away, Helion is making low cost, reliable, clean electricity from fusion a reality today.

Our technology

Helion combines the benefits of magnetic and inertial confinement fusion approaches for a highly efficient fusion solution. We utilize a pulsed system, which allows us to overcome complex physics challenges. Each pulse, powered by a fuel mixture of deuterium and helium-3, occurs in less than half a second, directly capturing electricity and exhausting the byproducts after each pulse.

Polaris

Polaris began initial operations in late 2024, aiming to be the first machine to create electricity from fusion. Polaris will operate in D-D, D-T, and D-He-3 fuel mixtures with a 50 MJ+ capacitor bank. Polaris has a peak field of 15 T+ and will recover fusion electricity by leveraging electromagnetic inductance.

Learn more about Polaris

Helion has a long history of building fusion machines

IPA, 2008 Demonstrates the fundamentals of Helion’s fusion approach for the first time

IPA-C, 2010 Compresses fusion plasmas for the first time

GRANDE, 2014 Achieves magnetic field compression and tests high field operation

VENTI, 2018 Produces the highest fusion output ever recorded by private fusion companies

TRENTA, 2020 Demonstrates the largest and most energetic FRC plasmas ever created

POLARIS, 2024 Designed to demonstrate electricity production from fusion

Electrical engineering

Fusion energy is only possible through precise control of extreme electrical power.

Helion’s electrical engineering teams design and test the systems that shape, switch, and control every pulse in our machines. They manage hundreds of gigawatts with precision hardware designed from first principles, ensuring each pulse is stable, repeatable, and ready to power the grid.

Learn how our team is solving fusion as an electrical engineering challenge

Our engineers come from:

Tesla, Los Alamos National Laboratory, SpaceX, Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, NASA, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Rivian, Amazon Project Kuiper, Microsoft, Axiom Space

Designing and operating an ultra-efficient electrical system for a multi-physics power plant

Power control at extreme scales Fusion requires precise electrical control at nanosecond scales. Helion develops pulsed power circuits pushing 10s to 100s of kiloamps time-aligned to 100s of nanoseconds by control electronics, all packaged very densely to enable high circuit efficiency, verified by real-time diagnostics during fusion operations.

Reliability and scale Fusion electrical systems experience rapid cycling, strong magnetic fields, and radiation. Every component must function reliably for billions of pulses with minimal degradation, driving advances in materials and circuit design that enable durable, efficient, and low-cost power delivery.

Integration and feedback Fusion systems rely on tight coordination between electrical, mechanical, and control subsystems. High-speed feedback synchronizes voltage, magnetic fields, and diagnostics within microseconds, while maintaining electromagnetic robustness for stable, reliable performance over each plant’s lifetime.

FAQ

How does my previous experience translate to fusion engineering? • Most of our technical team comes from adjacent industries such as aerospace, advanced manufacturing, and clean energy. • These fields share our focus on precision engineering, system reliability, and scalable production.

Why does Helion use D-He-3 instead of D-T? Do you have to mine it from the moon? • While D-He-3 requires higher operational temperatures, these inputs minimize neutron output and maximize electricity production, making it the optimal choice for Helion’s commercial fusion power plants. • Our approach, leveraging Field Reversed Configurations (FRCs), is particularly suited to achieve these high temperatures, making D-He-3 fusion feasible. • Helion will produce helium-3 by fusing deuterium in its fusion generators utilizing a patented high-efficiency closed-fuel cycle. Tritium, a fuel and byproduct of fusion, also decays into helium-3.

What does the hardware lifecycle look like at Helion? • Hardware moves through a tight, iterative lifecycle: define the problem and requirements, model and design concepts, prototype quickly, test, and build better. • Teams integrate hardware into full systems early to validate performance and reliability, feeding lessons back into the design. • Once a component is qualified and documented, we transition to controlled manufacturing with full traceability.

Why doesn’t Helion publish as much as other fusion companies? • Our full focus is rapid fusion deployment. Our entire technical team is dedicated to developing, building, and testing our technology to meet the growing global clean energy demand. • We also support our university and national lab partners in publishing joint research, and our patents and applications are available online if you’d like to learn more about our tech.

What is the engineering team structure like? • Helion’s engineering team spans across Mechanical, Electrical, Software, Manufacturing and other disciplines.

What is the company’s valuation and runway? • Since our founding, Helion has raised more than $1 billion from investors including Sam Altman, SoftBank, Lightspeed, Mithril, Capricorn, Nucor, and Dustin Moskovitz. • We have funds to complete Polaris’ testing campaign, as well as continue scaling our manufacturing capabilities for our first fusion power plants.