Japan will begin supporting startups related to nuclear fusion power generation, which is expected to be a carbon-free power source. This is the first time that funding has been provided exclusively to start-up companies. The contribution will come from a 100 billion yen fund set up for companies with innovative technology.
Britain said on Thursday it would rejoin the European Union’s flagship Horizon science research programme, ending a two-year post-Brexit standoff with the EU over science funding.
Goal of abundant, zero-carbon electricity from fusing atoms brings together private and public sector.
Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger believes that the question is no longer whether the merger will happen, but rather whether Germany will be there.
If the 2020s are going to be the decade of AI, then the 2030s could be the decade of fusion power — that is, if the sector’s startups are able to deliver.
If humanity survives for thousands more years, our primary energy source could very likely be nuclear fusion. It’s clean, the fuel is inexhaustible and cheap, and there’s no risk of a meltdown. It’s the power source of the stars — the whole cosmos, in fact. And we’re tantalizingly close to making it work. The downside is that the particular reactor now making the important breakthroughs in fusion is linked inextricably to nuclear weapons research.
Harnessing the power of nuclear fusion to generate electricity is a longstanding aspiration of the physics community. One company working towards this goal is UK-based First Light Fusion, which is using a technique called projectile fusion to create a simple, low-cost inertial fusion power plant.
About eight months ago, scientists at a US-government-funded lab replicated the process that powers stars—nuclear fusion—and created more energy than they put in. Now, physicists and engineers at the same facility, the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Northern California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, appear to have successfully created an energy-gaining fusion experiment for the second time.
General Fusion today announced $25 million in new funding and plans to build a demonstration machine in its home province of British Columbia.
Colorado State University and a German technology company are teaming up on what is expected to be one of the most powerful laser facilities in the world and a major step in the quest to commercialize fusion energy, long seen as a potential source of carbon-free power.