Fusion

• Many expect no viable form of fusion energy to be available until at least 2050.
• Fusion power could replace fossil fuels and conventional nuclear reactors.
• Billionaires including Jeff Bezos expect a major step toward commercially viable fusion in 2016.
• The new crop of fusion reactors appearing around the world will continue to play crucial roles in the chase for fusion.
• Fusion scientists expect ion beams to be part of the mix of plasma heating techniques.
• The long quest in the U.S. to mimic the sun's mighty power by mastering nuclear fusion has added a new goal - the development of compact, affordable fusion reactors that could be widely deployed by utilities in the century's second half.
• The world's largest nuclear fusion project began its five-year assembly phase on Tuesday in southern France, with the first ultra-hot plasma expected to be generated in late 2025.
• Engineers started construction of the world's largest nuclear fusion project in southern France, with operations planned to begin in late 2025.
• The UK government plans to increase public R&D investment to £22bn per year by 2024-25, investing in people, ideas and industries in sectors including nuclear fusion and electric vehicles.
• Leadership in key technologies - The government will invest over £900 million to ensure UK businesses are leading the way in high-potential technology and sectors, including nuclear fusion, space, electric vehicles, and life sciences.
• £800 million is going to set up a new high-risk high-reward UK research agency modelled on the American Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and £900 million to supporting nuclear fusion technology, the National Space Strategy and Space Innovation Fund, and the e-vehicle supply chain.
• China plans to land humans on the Moon by 2030 and begin mining Helium-3, a valuable isotope used in nuclear fusion that the Moon has in abundance.
• A tokamak, like the huge one that will reach 200 million Celsius in China next year, is a nuclear fusion plasma reactor where extremely hot, charged plasma spins and generates virtually limitless energy.
• The UK will accelerate efforts to realise nuclear fusion energy through investment in a new UK fusion reactor design programme, known as STEP, which aims to deliver the world's first commercially viable fusion power plant by 2040.
• A virtually infinite source of energy, the controlled nuclear fusion of hydrogen, will probably be tapped within 50 years.
• An international research team believes that, with a new approach, nuclear fusion could be only 15 years away from being hooked up to a national energy grid.
• The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge will work with a private firm to develop technology for producing energy from nuclear fusion within the next 15 years.
• Nuclear fusion could be the best future source to obtain great amounts of electric energy.
• Scientists in Germany have switched on a nuclear fusion experiment that they hope will provide a solution to finding clean and safe nuclear power.
• A new method for optimising the initiation of nuclear fusion reactions could mark a major step forward in the development of commercial fusion power.

Last updated: 17 January 2021