Oil major Chevron Corp CVX.N said on Wednesday it is investing in Zap Energy Inc, joining Italy’s ENI ENI.MI and Norwegian state oil company Equinor EQNR.OL who have also backed nuclear fusion startups to reduce their carbon footprint.
Realizing nuclear fusion as a practical energy source poses enormous challenges owing to the extreme physical conditions required by the known fusion reactions. These include temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius or more and astronomically high pressures, which must be maintained long enough to reach a net energy output.
The world has a major problem to solve. By 2040, we will need 29 trillion KWh of new energy generation to support 9 billion people on the planet, a whopping 45% increase in electricity demand. Wind, solar and other forms of renewables are well-positioned to play a key role, but their volatile, weather-dependent nature means…
The Madison, Wisconsin-based startup Phoenix has scouted a team of nuclear elites for a new frontier: small reactors that can revolutionize medical imaging, munitions scanning, and even non-destructive testing for quality assurance.
The FIA White Paper “Igniting the Fusion Revolution in America” outlines the promise of fusion energy, the background on regulation, and proposes a series of principles for regulation. The recommendations and background are targeted towards the specific legal and regulatory issues within the United States, but the principles outlined in the document apply broadly towards…
The modern quest for Promethean fire is underway in an anonymous office park in Foothill Ranch, California, an hour southeast of Los Angeles. In the park, along a meandering drive, you will find a huge, modern warehouse building with “TAE Technologies” emblazoned on the door. Inside, you will find a 100-foot-long, $200 million fusion-energy experiment…
The decades-old debate over nuclear fusion vs. fission is on the edge of a breakthrough as startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems wins over Bill Gates and other backers. Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor is one of them. Commonwealth Fuel Systems has a system powered by high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets that are key to a push to get a commercial fusion energy system…
When British physicist Arthur Stanley Eddington first proposed in the 1920s that the sun and stars were powered by the fusion of hydrogen into helium, his idea sparked a rush of research and speculation into the possibility of bringing this energy source to earth. It was not long before journalists and pulp fiction authors were…
Scientists, private companies, investors and governments are all growing more confident that smaller-scale fusion energy power systems are closer to becoming a reality than ever before.
Champions of nuclear power in the 1950s predicted it would be too cheap to meter. That didn’t work out. But they were talking about fission. For decades, nuclear proponents have kept alive the idea of safe fusion power. Now the Energy Department has launched a grant program to rev up research into this science-fiction-like technology. For details, Federal Drive…