Now is the time for Congress to double down on support for fusion energy development. Our nation is at a pivotal moment in the development of fusion energy as a clean, reliable source of power that could effectively address the climate crisis.
The IAEA’s Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi opened the IAEA’s 29th International Fusion Energy Conference (FEC) in London with the announcement an inaugural meeting of the World Fusion Energy Group will be convened next year.
When a reality, fusion will be a source of low carbon energy and can contribute to decarbonisation and diversification of energy generation, the IAEA states in its first World Fusion Outlook.
Bipartisan fusion support and activity in Congress grows.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed Assembly Bill 1172 into law, making California the first state in the US to recognise fusion energy as a separate and distinct technology from traditional nuclear fission.
Lightning has struck a second time for physicists using lasers to achieve nuclear fusion—the process in which two atomic nuclei combine into one while releasing enormous amounts of energy. On 30 July, the 192 lasers of the stadium-size National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory instantaneously crushed a tiny capsule filled with deuterium and tritium, heavy isotopes of hydrogen. In doing so, they prompted a fusion reaction that produced more energy than the laser beams shined onto the target.
Osaka University will operate a laser facility with one of the world’s largest average output powers by 2024. It will be used for research into “laser fusion,” which involves irradiating fuel with a powerful laser to cause a fusion reaction and extract energy. We will establish a joint research department with Osaka University startup EX-Fusion (Suita City, Osaka Prefecture) and others, aiming to become a global base for nuclear fusion research.
Helion Energy and Nucor are teaming up to build a power plant at one of Nucor’s U.S. steel mills.
The Biden administration hopes to create a commercial nuclear fusion facility within 10 years as part of the nation’s transition to clean energy, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Monday.
Congress should step up and invest in fusion. Don’t let this incredibly promising technology, with its potential economic and national security benefits, slip away to our competitors.