Is private sector involvement in fusion possible?

Dear friends,

A private company pursuing fusion may elicit scepticism. The two main threads of this scepticism are

1. disbelief that fusion is possible: “Isn’t fusion supposed to be 30 years away… and always will be?” and

2. disbelief that a private company could be the one to deliver fusion: “If national labs, with thousands of scientists and 10s of $B in funding can’t do it, how can a private company get fusion?”

Both are very reasonable, given that fusion has been promising abundant clean energy since the 1950s and given the amount of resources the public fusion research programs have.

With that said, since the late 1990s, about 25 private fusion companies have formed around the world, with private funding of the order of $2B already invested in them. Some investors clearly do not share the scepticism.

It is true that public fusion research, by which we mean public research in support of ITER, is promising fusion in the second half of this century, in line with the “30 years away” joke. Most of the private companies in fusion, however, are working towards delivering fusion in the 2030s, i.e. just over a decade from now.

Fusion Reactors is one of those companies, with some unique features, which we will talk about in subsequent posts (more on public vs private fusion in our next post).

In the meantime, please continue spreading the word about Fusion Reactors.