Xcimer Energy
Communication Strategy and Experience Design, Nov 2023 - Present
Overview
Xcimer is a growing startup in the nuclear fusion energy space, with a recent series A announcement in June 2024. Our team's work at Big Dreams Studio was to learn about Xcimer's inertial fusion science and tech and use it to design, develop and deliver engagements, through branding and communications applied to posters, prints, digital media and website 2.0 development.
Team and Role
- Alyssa Bishop (Strategy Director)
- Arvind Bhallamudi (Strategist and Designer)
My responsibilities focused on competitive research, engagement strategy, data visualization, copywriting, and supporting the team with brand and web design.
- Laila Auckee (Design Director)
- Jae Yoon Myung (Designer)
Services
Market and Technology Research
Brand Identity and Activation
Communication and Information Design
Website Experience and Interface Design
Magnetic Fusion Energy
Working Principle
MFE uses strong magnetic fields to confine and control a hot plasma composed of deuterium and tritium ions. The magnetic fields contain the plasma long enough for the ions to collide and fuse, releasing energy.
Elements and Architecture
MFE systems comprise superconducting magnets, vacuum chambers, plasma heating systems, and control systems to maintain the plasma stability. Tokamak reactors like ITER also include divertors to manage heat and particle loads.
Advantages
- Proven designs with large-scale international projects (e.g., ITER).
- Continuous operation potential for stable energy production.
- Extensive knowledge base and technology development over decades.
Inertial Fusion Energy (Xcimer)
Working Principle
IFE relies on compressing and heating a small fuel pellet, typically made of deuterium and tritium, using powerful lasers or particle beams to achieve rapid compression creates a shockwave that initiates fusion in the core.
Elements and Architecture
IFE systems include powerful laser or particle beam arrays, precision fuel pellet injectors, and containment chambers designed to handle high-energy reactions. IFE systems are typically pulsed, requiring frequent ignition events.
Advantages
- Potential for smaller, modular reactor designs.
- High energy density achievable in short pulses.
- Flexibility in choosing driver technologies (lasers, particle beams).
1. TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH
Fusion energy uses one of two main approaches: magnetic (MFE) such as tokamaks and stellarators, or inertial (IFE) that uses lasers or particle beam accelerators.
We learnt how Xcimer is solving some of the major challenges in scaling inertial fusion, by replacing glass with gas, using larger targets, and a 10+ MJ laser.
Peers in fusion are directing their marketing across engineering and technology advancement, commercialization plans, and messaging about limitless, clean energy.
2. COMPETITIVE POSITIONING
-
Startups are future-casting their plans to build a fusion power plant and bringing it to market by the 2030's. They suggest how fusion will save us, and how it is an inevitable source of energy.
-
The words 'clean', 'unlimited' and 'safe' are very high in frequency across opening messages on the homepages of most fusion companies.
-
Each of them describes their technology as practical, compact, efficient, low-cost, and 'radically different' to be able to build the first fusion power plant.
Opportunity: The language about fusion technology needs to be free of jargon, and be straightforward about why this is important, explaining engineering, architecture, and roadmap in clear terms.
Engagement about fusion energy can gain more credibility when it's backed by science, explained simply, slowly and sincerely.
Creating a hierarchy allows us to explore various story arrangements by changing the order and vernacular of information.
3. ARCHITECTURE AND PROTOTYPING
Three pages to describe fusion, technology, and company serve as a top-level navigation for the information, with a deeper layer of insights, links and details within each section.
Research on scientific advancements in fusion.
1. A Historical Timeline of Milestones
Categorizing and sequencing events in fields of engineering.
Refined content, interactions and design.
2. Mission with Henry Adams Curve
Refined interactive section of Xcimer's mission and advantage.
Exploring the theory of Henry Adam's curve in regard to fusion futures and Xcimer.
Initial sketches on connections to Henry Adam's theory.
5. DATA VISUALIZATIONS
To enhance the story, two data visualization sections are crafted to invite readers into the historical timeline that Xcimer is building on, it's mission and system advantages.
Optimistic
Future-casting, eager tone
Brand-focused
Imaginative. Attractive
Science-focused
Rational, Credibility
Realistic
Neutral, academic tone
Chaptered Content
Easy to navigate
Single Page
Long to scroll
Achieving humanity’s potential requires generating more energy, not less. But today’s energy sources are holding us back. Fusion can free humanity from fossil fuels, save the planet from climate change and unlock a new era of progress, prosperity and safety for all.
By combining innovative technologies in a way no one else has done before, Xcimer is building on decades of development in multiple fields to deliver commercial energy production from laser-driven inertial fusion. Xcimer’s systems will power a safer, cleaner, more productive world.
The narrative of commercial fusion needs to start with the reason of pursuit, and the logic of systems that make it possible to construct and execute.
4. STORYTELLING AND NARRATIVE
This structuring of the narrative in three primary sections: mission, science and approach, leads viewers from the why (mission) to the what (science) and how (approach) of Xcimer's technology.
To contextualize and engage
Mission
System advantages that enable better economics
We will use clean, safe, abundant energy from fusion to power the next generation of progress.
Fusion will return us to the path we were on before we learned of the damage fossil fuels were doing to the environment.
To educate and inform
Science
The physics and technology behind nuclear fusion gains.
Our sun and every other star is powered by nuclear fusion. This is true solar.
We are building on over 200 years of fusion science and development to overcome the challenge of commercial scale and economics.
To differentiate and position
Approach
The architecture and viability of inertial fusion energy systems.
The only experimentally demonstrated fusion approach to exceed breakeven results.
Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) uses lasers to heat, compress and ignite a hydrogen fuel target producing a controlled release of energy.
Balancing creative writing with technical information was done in parallel with the assisting the design team with layouts, visual graphics, imagery and interactions.
6. USER INTERFACE DESIGN
Potential for Commercial Fusion Plants
“Harnessing fusion energy is one of the greatest scientific and technological challenges of the 21st Century,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm.
More than $900 million was directed toward fusion technologies in the past year, with a total of $7.1 billion into the fusion industry since 1992.
First Scientific Breakeven in Fusion
On December 5, 2022, the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Lab performed an experiment in which a 2.05-megajoule laser pulse yielded 3.15 megajoules of fusion energy output. It was the first time fusion scientific breakeven has been achieved in a lab.
Nuclear fusion as a clean source of power for the future has been gaining interest since National Ignition Facility's net-energy gain breakthrough in 2022.
Startups are racing to construct the first fusion power plant to produce reliable, carbon-free energy at scale by the 2040s.
CURRENT SCENARIO
How might we communicate fusion's technological momentum and commercial potential?
RESEARCH SCOPE
1) To attract top talent in and around fusion*
2) To validate Xcimer as part of investor and government vetting**
3) To educate the broader public about fusion.
* Those potentially familiar with, but not experts in fusion
** Including federal, state, and corporate officials, executives, representatives, and regulatory bodies
PROCESS
This 10 month process started with conducting market and technology research to craft Xcimer's story, and integrate it with a website launch and media engagement.
.png)