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Some companies are exploring different fuels as well as different designs. California-based TAE Technologies, which has been in business since 1998, is building a nuclear reactor that’s designed to fuse hydrogen with boron-11 by colliding plasma “smoke rings” inside a long, cigar-shaped chamber. This setup would need to hit temperatures even higher than those in tokamaks. But if scaled-up versions work, they could generate electricity without the neutron fusillade.

TAE Technologies in Foothill Ranch is one step closer to making its ambitious dream of tapping into almost limitless supplies of energy come true, and is expanding its operations to Irvine to help move those plans forward.

TAE Technologies Inc., a nuclear fusion startup backed by Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Chevron Corp. and Japan’s Sumitomo Corp., hopes to see an “essential milestone” on its path to build a commercial fusion reactor by the middle of this decade. TAE’s efforts received a kickstart in July as the fusion startup secured $250 million in its latest funding round.

Google, the search giant owned by parent company Alphabet, has partnered with TAE since 2014, providing the fusion startup with artificial intelligence and computational power. But this marks Google’s first cash investment in TAE.