Tag: Fusion

Riding the fusion money train

Global investment in fusion energy hit a record of $4.8 billion in the past 12 months, bringing total investments since 2021 above $14.2 billion. Last year’s total investment in 45 private companies, said Reuters, was 69% higher than in the previous 12 months. At least 17 fusion companies have raised at least $100 million.

Futuristic Digital Technology and Global Innovation Background Collection.

From CFACT

By Duggan Flanakin

Global investment in fusion energy hit a record of $4.8 billion in the past 12 months, bringing total investments since 2021 above $14.2 billion. Last year’s total investment in 45 private companies, said Reuters, was 69% higher than in the previous 12 months. At least 17 fusion companies have raised at least $100 million.

The investment surge, says Reuters, signals growing confidence that fusion can augment the electric grid in the 2030s. Quantum computing and artificial intelligence are among the reasons for the surge in faith that “the Holy Grail” is closer than ever.

Researchers recently demonstrated the first quantum computer calculations of FLiBe, a molten salt made from fluorine, lithium, and beryllium that is a leading candidate material for breeding and extracting tritium inside fusion reactors.

Experts from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Cleveland Clinic, and IBM successfully calculated nine different molecular configurations of FLiBe – an important step toward designing materials capable of producing the fusion fuel tritium.

Artificial intelligence is becoming a critical enabler for fusion funding, as AI data centers gobble up electricity in unprecedented amounts. Google, Microsoft, and other tech giants are heavy investors in fusion.

AI is also being deployed to tackle four major challenges: designing materials that can withstand extreme neutron flux; stabilizing super-hot plasma (100 million °C), handling extreme thermal loads (heat flux), and maximizing energy output (fuel cycle optimization).

AI is simulating complex plasma physics, discovering novel materials and control strategies, integrating with real-time hardware to improve stability and efficiency, and enabling digital twins and immersive modeling for design and troubleshooting – all at speeds previously unthinkable.

In a partnership with Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Google DeepMind is using deep reinforcement learning to stabilize plasma shapes in tokamaks and to develop TORAX – a fast, differentiable plasma simulator – to optimize performance and control strategies. Microsoft is using generative AI for molecular design and AI emulators for rapid material – saving years of trial-and-error.

AI and quantum computing have augmented the response to President Trump’s call to restore the United States as the world leader in nuclear energy. The Department of Energy and private investors now believe that fusion can begin supplying electricity to the national grid – and to stand-alone facilities – in the next decade.

Just last month, the DOE released a finalized Fusion Science and Technology Roadmap – a national strategy to accelerate the development and commercialization of fusion energy on the most rapid, responsible timeline in history. The roadmap – informed by at least 800 scientists and engineers, 15 private companies, 10 national laboratories, and 70 universities – identifies critical science and technology gaps that the DOE, industry, universities, and national laboratories need to close to enable fusion to help satisfy America’s energy appetite.

The unified strategy, to be implemented via the DOE’s newly established Office of Fusion, is built around three primary drivers: building critical infrastructure to close fusion materials and technology gaps; innovating through advanced research, high-performance computing, and AI; and growing the U.S. fusion ecosystem through public-private partnerships, supply chain development, workforce growth, and commercialization pathways.

The inflow of money to fusion companies affirms that the strategy has broad support.

A sizable chunk has gone to Google-backed TAE Technologies, which recently underwent a reverse merger with Trump Media & Technology Group, led by Trump ally Devin Nunez. Trump Media agreed to provide up to $200 million in cash to TAE at signing and $100 million more upon initial filing.

TAE Technologies is primarily focused on advancing aneutronic fusion power, which produces minimal radioactive waste. The technology utilizes a field-reversed configuration to optimize plasma confinement and stability. The company, which had raised $1.79 billion before the merger, plans to pick a site by yearend and create a commercially viable fusion reactor by 2030.

Jeff Bezos-backed General Fusion on July 13 became the first publicly listed fusion power company, beating TAE Technologies by several months. On its first day, the stock went up sharply. A recent merger with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III brought much-needed cash to the company, which had raised over $600 million from private investors since 2002.

General Fusion relies on magnetized target fusion, which uses magnetic fields to create magnetized plasma inside a chamber lined with liquid lithium. The company hopes to turn on its first power plant “by approximately 2035.”

Commonwealth Fusion Systems, spun out of MIT, is developing a process that fuses hydrogen nuclei using high-temperature superconducting magnets. The firm, which has raised nearly $3 billion from investors that include Google and Nvidia, hopes to turn on its SPARC tokamak fusion energy machine in 2027. Google has already agreed to purchase half of the output from the Arc, a 400 MW commercial power plant CFS wants to build in Virginia.

Microsoft will be the first customer for Helion’s field-reversed configuration reactor, in which magnets surround an hourglass-shaped reaction chamber. Helion, which has raised $1.5 billion (and is valued at $15.5 billion), plans to produce electricity from its reactor in 2028. Investors include Sam Altman, Reid Hoffman, and BlackRock.

Helion’s Polaris reactor is more like a battery than a traditional power plant. There is no heat, no steam, no turbine, all of which leak energy. Essentially, a 60-foot tube slams two plasma rings together at a million miles per hour and the recoil is harvested as electricity. Helion says it can recover electricity from each pulse at +95% efficiency. If the technology works, it may have the inside track in the fusion race.

Because the NRC in 2023 decided that fusion machines have more in common with particle accelerators than with fission reactors, fusion reactors are not impeded by decade-long federal reactor reviews. Last month, Helion obtained state Radioactive Materials and Radioactive Air Emissions licenses, making the firm the first fusion power facility to have all its licenses in hand. Polaris is also the first privately funded fusion machine to run on deuterium-tritium fuel.

It’s not just American fusion companies that are raking in cash.

Google just backed Germany-based Proxima Fusion with $468 million. The firm, which hopes to build Europe’s first commercial fusion power plant, has reached $2.7 billion in valuation. Proxima is developing stellarator technology and hopes to have its fusion demonstrator – a proof-of-concept precursor to a commercial power plant – up and running in the early 2030s.

First Light Fusion, spun out of the University of Oxford, has spent less than £45 million to achieve fusion by firing a projectile at a target using a two-stage gun. First Light wants to partner with existing power producers to develop a pilot plant in the 2030s that would produce about 150 MW of electricity and cost less than $1 billion.

Fusion is no longer “30 years away,” we are told. But who will win the race?

Investors today are betting on very different fusion technologies, but with construction and operational costs potentially varying widely, the companies that get to energy production first may – or may not – be the ultimate winners. Betamax preceded VHS and had superior quality, but VHS was cheaper and better served the movie-watching public.

One year after the laser fusion energy breakthrough: What comes next?

By Edward Moses

Fusion energy powers our sun, all the stars in the universe, and sustains life on Earth. Fusion is the Holy Grail of energy – safe, sustainable, and carbon-free. Fusion fuel the size of a raisin, contains enough energy to power a typical home for several years displacing the burning of 12 tons of coal which would create 25 tons of carbon dioxide.

For more than 75 years, it has been a dream to recreate the sun’s fusion energy here on Earth. Even though tens of billions of dollars have been expended by teams of scientists and engineers working around the world on a variety of fusion approaches, there has been no experimental proof that the fusion energy dream could be realized.

That is, until a year ago when everything changed.

On December 5, 2022, at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in the National Ignition Facility (NIF), the world’s largest and most energetic laser, 192 laser beams were pointed at a peppercorn-sized target and a tiny sun was created on Earth. More fusion energy was produced than the laser energy needed to ignite the fusion fuel.

The significance of this breakthrough cannot be overstated. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm referred to it as “One of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century.” Some have likened it to the historic “Kitty Hawk moment” when the Wright Brothers were the first to successfully fly a manned aircraft. The Wright Brothers flight represented the first step towards commercial air travel and a vast aerospace industry.

Like Kitty Hawk, fusion energy gain at the NIF will be one of those historical “before and after” moments. The challenge now is to convert fusion physics to baseload commercial power, providing unprecedented megawatts of sustainable zero-emission electricity. Fusion energy can also be used for powering the hydrogen economy, creating low-carbon commodities including fertilizers, syn-fuels, cement, and steel, and de-carbonize the desalination of water. The fusion industry and its applications can be a multi-trillion-dollar business for decades to come.

As the former Director of the NIF, I am frequently asked what is the plan to accelerate the commercialization of this technological achievement and bring it to the marketplace? 

During my time at the NIF, a laser fusion power plant design effort was initiated. Scientists and engineers, in collaboration with major U.S. utilities, leading technology vendors, NGOs, and regulatory experts, developed a fully integrated commercial laser fusion energy power plant concept and the plan for deploying it. It was founded on two basic assumptions — that fusion with energy gain would be proven — it has been, and that new laser and other technologies not available when the NIF was being built would be — they are. These include 30 years of parallel development of groundbreaking laser and associated technologies apropos to power plant construction and operation. 

Of course, there is still more to do in all aspects of these technologies. The path ahead will require the same dedication and innovation that has been the hallmark of this field which, having been there, gives me great confidence. This will be instrumental in solving the most consequential challenges facing humankind — providing clean, renewable and sustainable energy, mitigating climate change, and providing for energy security.

The enormous potential for growth and opportunity in the emergent fusion industry requires that the U.S. maintains its clear leadership position and be aware of fusion energy efforts in China and around the world. Being ahead now reduces risk from foreign competitors later.

The Federal government, led by the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration, has provided decades of funding and policy support for many fusion research approaches. Today’s breakthrough in laser fusion energy, and important advances in other fusion approaches, makes it essential that government and private capital work together to assure successful and accelerated fusion energy commercialization for our nation. The impact can be monumental.

As we celebrate the one-year anniversary of America’s fusion energy breakthrough, we are proud that the nation is still capable of doing big and important things.

Let us embrace a future underpinned by clean and sustainable fusion energy.

Dr. Edward Moses is the Chief Executive Officer of Longview Fusion Energy Systems. He was the Director of Livermore’s National Ignition Facility from 2000 to 2013 and was responsible for leading the design, technology development, construction and operation of the NIF.

This article originally appeared at Real Clear Energy.