But the ultimate alchemy (turning lead to gold is chicken feed by comparison) is, according to multiple private companies, much closer to reality than the timeline espoused by the myriad of international nuclear scientists building Europe’s ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) or even China’s artificial sun.
As Tim De Chant reports, three key technological advances have turned the dream (or, to some, the nightmare) of fusion energy from science fiction to planned operational status before the end of President Trump’s second term. The trio? More powerful computer chips, more sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI), and powerful high-temperature superconducting magnets.
The first reported breakthrough came in late 2022 when 192 lasers at the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) converged on a small gold cylinder that contained a tiny bead of fuel composed of isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium, and tritium.
The pellet ignited to produce a sustained fusion reaction that released about 50% more energy than was imparted by the lasers – which had heated the pellet to about 150 million degrees Celsius and compressed it with a pressure over twice that found at the center of the Sun.
While the experiment generated 50% more output than input energy, LLNL director Kim Budil was hardly effusive, stating that commercial fusion remained “probably decades away,” and that a few decades more of research might put us in the realm of a commercial power plant.
Commercial fusion remains “probably decades away,” she said. “Not six or five as we used to say, but moving into the foreground. A few decades of research into the underlying technologies could put us in the realm of a commercial power plant.” Or, shall we say, “30 years away” was still the prevailing mantra just three years ago.
That sobering estimate led then-Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to insist that, “We need the private sector to get into the game.”
A recent article in Time says the U.S. energy system is in the middle of an all-out revolution, driven by growing electricity demand (sparked by AI, robotics, and data centers) and an administration that espouses an “all systems go” to meet the energy demand challenge.
Former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, now on the board of fusion startup TAE Technologies, told the venerable magazine, “I think we are showing promise for being able to demonstrate fusion conditions in this decade.” This, he indicated, makes fusion the likely dominant source much sooner than most people believe.
TAE is second on De Chant’s annual – and growing – list of fusion startups [not including Chinese entities] that have raised over $100 million. The massive increase in fusion funding indicates that the private sector is smelling success far sooner than Director Budil (that is, unless the fusion feeding frenzy is going to end up as just a lot more money down the drain).
At the top of the fusion funding food chain is Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), which just added $863 million to its coffers four years after its Series B funding drive netted $1.8 billion. Its pilot-sized SPARC power plant in Devon, MA is already under construction, with a completion date in time to begin operations by late 2026 or early 2027.
In March, the firm announced installation of the cryostat base, a 24-foot-wide, 75-ton stainless steel circle, manufactured in Italy, that forms the foundation of its tokamak. CFS director of tokamak operations Alex Creely stated that this first piece of the actual fusion machine is “a big deal,” as it means we are not building an industrial facility but “the actual tokamak itself.”
CFS, whose investors include Bill Gates and his Breakthrough Energy Ventures, already has an agreement with Google to purchase half the output of its planned Arc commercial power plant, to be built near Richmond, VA. The successful launch of the 400 MW facility would justify the heavy investment with 200 MW of clean energy, theoretically at a greatly reduced cost, with very little radioactive waste to dispose of.
Can CFS really reach commercial fusion for Google (and lots of smaller customers) within the next decade – or sooner? Will its SPARC reactor be efficient enough to justify startup of the Arc? Stay tuned. But another fusion startup plans to beat CFS to the finish line.
With support from such notables as Reid Hoffman, Sam Altman, BlackRock, KKR, and Peter Thiel, Helion, based in Everett, WA, has raised $1.03 billion, bolstered by a $425 million infusion after its Polaris prototype field-reversed reactor made its debut. Now the firm is promising Microsoft, its primary customer, electricity from its reactor in 2028.
That’s three years from now – not thirty. If. It. Happens.
California-based TAE Technologies (fka Tri Alpha Energy) also uses a field-reversed configuration (FRC) with a twist that purportedly improves the stability of the plasma to give more time for fusion to occur and more heat extracted to spin a turbine. Its $1.79 billion total investment comes from such investors as Google, Chevron, and New Enterprise.
TAE claims to be the first in fusion research history to successfully form an FRC plasma using only neutral beam injection, a breakthrough that it says will dramatically cut the cost and complexity of the FRC technique while improving performance. Its “Norm” prototype machine is paving the way for its next-generation Copernicus National Laboratory-scale device that TAE says will be ready to deliver hydrogen-boron fusion to the grid in the early 2030s.
De Chant’s list is now up to twelve, including Pacific Fusion, led by CEO Eric Lander, whose earlier career included leading the Human Genome Project; Shine Technologies, which is selling neutron testing and medical isotopes and developing a way to recycle radioactive waste; and General Fusion, with investors including Jeff Bezos, which was testing magnetized target fusion
Farther down the cashflow chain are British-based Tokamak Energy, Zap Energy, Proxima Fusion, Marvel Fusion, First Light, and Xcimer, each of which bring their own approaches to achieving commercial-grade fusion energy. There are many smaller startups also raising funds.
The promises being made by these companies – and by the ITER, Chinese, EUROfusion, and other projects – are all dependent not just on achieving fusion but on confinement – maintaining plasma at extremely high (sunlike) temperatures and densities over time. Today’s best times are measured in seconds – not minutes, hours, days, or weeks – let alone years.
That is one reason many today are talking about a “fission fusion society,” with fission for today’s energy needs and the higher yielding fusion down the road. The competition, though, is on to shorten that time frame – while ensuring fusion is safe, affordable, and reliable.
Duggan Flanakin is a Senior Policy Analyst with the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow. This article was sourced HERE
The first reported breakthrough came in late 2022 when 192 lasers at the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) converged on a small gold cylinder that contained a tiny bead of fuel composed of isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium, and tritium.
The pellet ignited to produce a sustained fusion reaction that released about 50% more energy than was imparted by the lasers – which had heated the pellet to about 150 million degrees Celsius and compressed it with a pressure over twice that found at the center of the Sun.
While the experiment generated 50% more output than input energy, LLNL director Kim Budil was hardly effusive, stating that commercial fusion remained “probably decades away,” and that a few decades more of research might put us in the realm of a commercial power plant.
Commercial fusion remains “probably decades away,” she said. “Not six or five as we used to say, but moving into the foreground. A few decades of research into the underlying technologies could put us in the realm of a commercial power plant.” Or, shall we say, “30 years away” was still the prevailing mantra just three years ago.
That sobering estimate led then-Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to insist that, “We need the private sector to get into the game.”
A recent article in Time says the U.S. energy system is in the middle of an all-out revolution, driven by growing electricity demand (sparked by AI, robotics, and data centers) and an administration that espouses an “all systems go” to meet the energy demand challenge.
Former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, now on the board of fusion startup TAE Technologies, told the venerable magazine, “I think we are showing promise for being able to demonstrate fusion conditions in this decade.” This, he indicated, makes fusion the likely dominant source much sooner than most people believe.
TAE is second on De Chant’s annual – and growing – list of fusion startups [not including Chinese entities] that have raised over $100 million. The massive increase in fusion funding indicates that the private sector is smelling success far sooner than Director Budil (that is, unless the fusion feeding frenzy is going to end up as just a lot more money down the drain).
At the top of the fusion funding food chain is Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), which just added $863 million to its coffers four years after its Series B funding drive netted $1.8 billion. Its pilot-sized SPARC power plant in Devon, MA is already under construction, with a completion date in time to begin operations by late 2026 or early 2027.
In March, the firm announced installation of the cryostat base, a 24-foot-wide, 75-ton stainless steel circle, manufactured in Italy, that forms the foundation of its tokamak. CFS director of tokamak operations Alex Creely stated that this first piece of the actual fusion machine is “a big deal,” as it means we are not building an industrial facility but “the actual tokamak itself.”
CFS, whose investors include Bill Gates and his Breakthrough Energy Ventures, already has an agreement with Google to purchase half the output of its planned Arc commercial power plant, to be built near Richmond, VA. The successful launch of the 400 MW facility would justify the heavy investment with 200 MW of clean energy, theoretically at a greatly reduced cost, with very little radioactive waste to dispose of.
Can CFS really reach commercial fusion for Google (and lots of smaller customers) within the next decade – or sooner? Will its SPARC reactor be efficient enough to justify startup of the Arc? Stay tuned. But another fusion startup plans to beat CFS to the finish line.
With support from such notables as Reid Hoffman, Sam Altman, BlackRock, KKR, and Peter Thiel, Helion, based in Everett, WA, has raised $1.03 billion, bolstered by a $425 million infusion after its Polaris prototype field-reversed reactor made its debut. Now the firm is promising Microsoft, its primary customer, electricity from its reactor in 2028.
That’s three years from now – not thirty. If. It. Happens.
California-based TAE Technologies (fka Tri Alpha Energy) also uses a field-reversed configuration (FRC) with a twist that purportedly improves the stability of the plasma to give more time for fusion to occur and more heat extracted to spin a turbine. Its $1.79 billion total investment comes from such investors as Google, Chevron, and New Enterprise.
TAE claims to be the first in fusion research history to successfully form an FRC plasma using only neutral beam injection, a breakthrough that it says will dramatically cut the cost and complexity of the FRC technique while improving performance. Its “Norm” prototype machine is paving the way for its next-generation Copernicus National Laboratory-scale device that TAE says will be ready to deliver hydrogen-boron fusion to the grid in the early 2030s.
De Chant’s list is now up to twelve, including Pacific Fusion, led by CEO Eric Lander, whose earlier career included leading the Human Genome Project; Shine Technologies, which is selling neutron testing and medical isotopes and developing a way to recycle radioactive waste; and General Fusion, with investors including Jeff Bezos, which was testing magnetized target fusion
Farther down the cashflow chain are British-based Tokamak Energy, Zap Energy, Proxima Fusion, Marvel Fusion, First Light, and Xcimer, each of which bring their own approaches to achieving commercial-grade fusion energy. There are many smaller startups also raising funds.
The promises being made by these companies – and by the ITER, Chinese, EUROfusion, and other projects – are all dependent not just on achieving fusion but on confinement – maintaining plasma at extremely high (sunlike) temperatures and densities over time. Today’s best times are measured in seconds – not minutes, hours, days, or weeks – let alone years.
That is one reason many today are talking about a “fission fusion society,” with fission for today’s energy needs and the higher yielding fusion down the road. The competition, though, is on to shorten that time frame – while ensuring fusion is safe, affordable, and reliable.
Duggan Flanakin is a Senior Policy Analyst with the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow. This article was sourced HERE
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