Indian startup pursuing aneutronic proton-boron fusion via single-beam petawatt laser — partnering with TIFR to leapfrog conventional multi-beam inertial confinement.
Anubal Fusion is an Indian fusion energy company founded in 2024 by Dr. Pravin Kini and headquartered in Gurugram. The company is developing a proton-boron-11 (p-11B) inertial confinement fusion approach that would produce energy primarily through charged alpha particles rather than neutrons, eliminating radioactive waste from normal reactor operation.
Unlike conventional inertial confinement fusion systems that use hundreds of laser beams converging on a target (as in the National Ignition Facility's 192-beam architecture), Anubal's concept employs a single petawatt-class laser beam to accelerate protons into boron-11 targets at sufficient energies to trigger fusion reactions. This dramatically simplifies the driver system and reduces capital costs relative to traditional ICF facilities.[1]
The p-11B reaction produces three alpha particles per fusion event with 8.7 MeV total energy. Because the products are charged, energy can in principle be converted to electricity via direct conversion rather than a thermal cycle, offering higher theoretical efficiency. However, the reaction requires significantly higher ignition temperatures (~1 billion K) compared to deuterium-tritium fusion (~150 million K), making it one of the most technically demanding fuel cycles.[2]
Anubal has established a partnership with the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), which commissioned a petawatt-class laser supplied by French company Amplitude in 2024. This facility provides Anubal with experimental capabilities that would otherwise require hundreds of millions of dollars to develop independently. The company's research plan envisions 1–2 years of simulation work followed by an intensive experimental phase using the TIFR laser.[1]
Kini's strategy involves bridging global deep-tech advances with India's domestic energy needs by forging partnerships between international fusion developers, elite Indian academic institutions, and national heavy manufacturing corporations. The company estimates initial R&D will take approximately three years, with engineering development requiring another seven years before grid connection.[3]