内容来源：https://www.geekwire.com/2025/zap-hits-new-fusion-milestone-squeezing-plasma-with-pressure-thats-10x-mariana-trench/

内容总结：

美国核聚变能源公司Zap Energy近日宣布，其研发的核聚变装置成功实现了约16亿帕斯卡的内部压力，相当于海平面大气压的一万倍，甚至达到太平洋马里亚纳海沟最深处压力的十倍。这一突破性进展标志着该公司在模拟太阳聚变反应的道路上迈出关键一步。

该公司研发主管本·莱维特表示，此次实验成功验证了其技术原理的可行性，达到了预期里程碑目标。位于华盛顿州埃弗里特的Zap公司正与全球数十家机构竞逐核聚变能源商业化，该技术被视为清洁能源领域的"圣杯"，对满足数据中心、人工智能计算及电气化交通的能源需求具有重要意义。

与传统采用高功率磁体或激光的核聚变技术路径不同，Zap独创"Z-pinch"技术，通过等离子体电流产生自约束磁场实现物质压缩。据悉，该公司下月将启用第五代实验装置FuZE-A，其设备研发周期可缩短至半年，这种快速迭代能力被莱维特称为企业核心优势。

尽管取得突破，但研究人员坦言，要实现净能量增益并最终并入电网仍需数量级提升。莱维特透露，科学层面的能量盈亏平衡（即输出能量超过输入能量）有望在本十年末实现。目前该公司已获得美国能源部专项计划支持，并累计融资3.3亿美元。

在产业生态方面，距Zap仅数十分钟车程的竞争对手Helion能源正采取不同技术路线，其位于华盛顿东部的商业设施计划于2028年投入运营，但关键技术障碍仍有待攻克。值得注意的是，与Helion的保密策略相反，Zap坚持技术路径公开透明，相关数据将在本周美国物理学会等离子体物理会议上详细披露，并提交同行评议期刊审核。

莱维特强调："我们不会满足于现有成绩，这仅是新征程的起点。"随着全球碳中和进程加速，这场关乎未来能源格局的科技竞赛正迎来关键突破期。

中文翻译：

美国核聚变能源公司Zap Energy近日宣布，其核聚变装置内部产生的压力已达到海平面大气压的1万倍，相当于太平洋马里亚纳海沟最深处压力的10倍。该公司研发总监本·莱维特表示："这项原理验证实验达成了预设里程碑目标，以优异表现验证了技术可行性。"这家位于华盛顿州埃弗里特的企业正致力于通过模拟太阳内部反应实现轻原子高效碰撞。在地球上实现核聚变需要创造超高温、超高密度环境并维持足够长时间，从而捕获释放的能量并输入电网。

Zap Energy同时透露，下月将启用第五代核聚变装置"FuZE-A"，持续测试并优化技术所需的各子系统。目前该公司仍运行着创造压力新纪录的FuZE-Q和FuZE-3两套装置。莱维特指出："我们能在半年内完成整套装置的设计建造，快速迭代能力正是我们的核心优势。"

全球数十家企业正竞相攻克困扰人类数十年的核聚变能源难题。随着数据中心、人工智能计算、电气化交通、工业流程及建筑温控对清洁能源需求的激增，物理学家比任何时候都更接近这座"清洁能源圣杯"。各国科研团队分别采用强磁场约束、激光压缩等不同技术路径，Zap Energy的方案是通过等离子体强电流产生名为"Z箍缩"的磁压缩效应。距其仅数十分钟车程的竞争对手Helion能源则采取不同策略，正在东华盛顿州建设计划于2028年投运的商用设施，但仍有关键技术瓶颈亟待突破。两家企业风格迥异——Helion因担忧知识产权泄露而严格保密，Zap则更注重科研进展的透明共享。

本周末在长滩举行的美国物理学会等离子体物理分会会议上，Zap将详细公布16亿帕斯卡压力里程碑的完整数据，后续还将提交同行评审期刊。莱维特强调："我们将在全球聚变科学界面前巨细无遗地展示成果，这绝非空谈而是实打实的等离子体突破。"该公司同时向美国能源部提交技术细节，作为2023年入选"里程碑式聚变发展计划"的参与企业，其已累计融资3.3亿美元，在"极客线200"太平洋西北地区初创企业榜单中位列第12。

此次突破源于在原有双电极结构中增设第三电极，此举为装置增加了调节等离子体压缩程度的"新旋钮"。实现压力值较既往记录提升十倍，印证了该技术迭代带来的指数级进步。但莱维特指出，要达到电网级能源输出仍需数量级的提升。由于技术突破呈跨越式发展而非线性增长，他预计本十年末可能实现"科学盈亏平衡"（输出能量超过输入能量但未达发电标准），同时强调："这是重大进展而非终点，我们绝不会止步于现有成就。"

（下方视频为Zap公司通过高速摄像机拍摄的FuZE-3装置内部等离子体闪光画面，镜头正对聚变等离子体柱，可清晰观测向内坍塌的压缩波。）

英文来源：

Zap Energy shared news that its fusion device has generated a pressure that’s roughly 10,000 times the atmospheric pressure at sea level, or 10 times the pressure at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench.
“This is a proof of principle that was designed to hit a particular set of milestones and to validate the principle, and it did that with flying colors,” said Ben Levitt, Zap’s head of R&D.
The Everett, Wash., company is in a race to efficiently smash together light atoms, simulating the reactions that fuel the sun. To do that on Earth, physicists need to create super hot temperatures and incredibly dense conditions and sustain that long enough for fusion to take place, releasing energy that can be captured and put on the grid.
Zap also shared that next month it will commission its fifth fusion device to continue testing and optimizing the different systems required by the technology. The new machine will be called FuZE-A.
The company is still operating two other machines, the FuZE-Q and FuZE-3, which is the device that hit the new pressure milestone.
“We can design and build one in half a year,” Levitt said of the fusion machines. “And that’s what our superpower is — this rapid iteration that we have at our fingertips.”
Different paths to fusion
Dozens of companies globally are trying to unlock fusion energy, which has eluded humanity for decades. But physicists are closer than ever to seizing the so-called Holy Grail of clean power, which is in great demand from tech companies running data centers and AI computations, as well as electrified transportation, industrial processes and building cooling and heating.
Physicists are chasing fusion with different kinds of reactors in various configurations using high-powered magnets and lasers to create and hold plasmas, which are super heated gases needed for fusion. Zap’s solution is to run a high current through the plasma in its reactor, which produces a magnetic field called a Z-pinch that contains and compresses the matter.
Helion Energy, a competitor located a short drive from Zap, is taking a different scientific strategy for fusion. It’s building larger fusion generators and has broken ground on a commercial facility in Eastern Washington that is supposed to begin operating in 2028, but essential technical hurdles still must be overcome.
Helion has been largely secretive in its efforts, citing concerns about thefts of intellectual property, while Zap has emphasized a more transparent approach to sharing its science and progress.
Data and progress
Zap will present data on its new 1.6 gigapascal pressure milestone at the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics meeting held this week in Long Beach, Calif., and later submit the research to a peer-reviewed journal.
“We’re going to share it in front of the entire fusion science community and in gory detail,” Levitt said. “So it’s not hot air, it’s hot plasma.”
Zap will also disclose details to the U.S. Department of Energy, which in 2023 selected the company to participate in the Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program. The company has also raised $330 million from investors and is No. 12 on the GeekWire 200, which ranks the Pacific Northwest’s top startups.
The recent milestone was achieved by splitting one of the two electrodes in the fusion generator that provide the energy needed to create and contain the plasma. The third electrode gave the device a new, metaphorical “knob” to turn, allowing the machine to crank up compression of the plasma.
The pressure achieved was 10-fold higher than previous efforts and tracks with the largely exponential gains that new iterations of the technology have produced at Zap.
But orders of magnitude of additional improvement are needed to reach the state where the system produces enough energy to feed the electrical grid.
Levitt said it’s hard to say when that could happen as the gains in the system aren’t linear but arrive in punctuated leaps forward. He hinted that scientific breakeven — getting more energy out of the fusion reaction than went into it, but not enough for power production — is possible by the end of the decade.
The new milestone is “great progress” but the work isn’t done, he said. “We’re not waving our flag and resting on our laurels.”
Below: A Zap video from a high-speed camera that captures a flash of plasma formed inside the FuZE-3 device. The camera is pointed straight toward the column of fusion plasma and the compression wave is visible as it collapses inward.