Since the 1950s physicists have researched something they knew was theoretically possible but technically challenging: the effective generation of fusion energy as a substitute for carbon-based power. The prospect of clean, unlimited, and inexpensive electricity generated by safe devices that will not melt down or produce nuclear waste is a holy grail for climate change. Decades…
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) issued a formal Request for Information (“RFI”)[1] seeking input from all interested stakeholders regarding a “possible cost share program in fusion reactor technologies.”[2] DOE is requesting comments by May 15, 2020.
The various fields of science and technology are so closely connected that a breakthrough in one area can rapidly trigger a chain reaction of breakthroughs in other areas. The “impossible” becomes possible, the difficult becomes easy. Ideas, long since abandoned as hopelessly difficult to realize, suddenly take on new lives.
In an ambitious push to develop and implement nuclear fusion power, a team of 300 researchers just published a massive new report that lays out exactly what the scientific community needs and what it should prioritize to get the ball rolling.
Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Peter Thiel beware. There could be a shakeup on the horizon among the billionaire-backed companies trying to replicate the energy source of the sun and stars.
Nick Hawker is standing inches away from a gun that can fire bullets at 33,500mph. “Let’s just say, it wouldn’t end well if somebody got hit,” he laughs. This is the fastest railgun in Europe; a 40ft (12 metre) pulsed-power machine capable of discharging up to 200,000 volts – the equivalent of 500 simultaneous lightning…
If Nick Hawker’s computer models are right, the snap of a pistol shrimp’s claw holds the secret to boundless clean energy. Mr. Hawker’s company, First Light Fusion, is one of around two dozen startups chasing the dream of generating electricity by squeezing atoms together.
Nuclear fusion energy is 30 years away…and always will be. But now, more than 80 years after Australian physicist Mark Oliphant first observed deuterium atoms fusing and releasing dollops of energy, it may finally be time to update the punch line.
He built a fortune on the lunchbox favourite Capri Sun and now one Swiss billionaire hopes to harness the power of the sun again, by building a nuclear fusion reactor in rural Oxfordshire
A fusion energy startup backed by Jeff Bezos just closed a $65 million funding round, led by the massive Singapore-based investment firm, Temasek.