"Over the last several years, fusion power has gone from the butt of jokes - always a decade away! - to an increasingly tangible and tantalizing technology that has drawn investors off the sidelines. The technology may be challenging to master and expensive to build today, but fusion promises to harness the nuclear reaction that powers the sun to generate nearly limitless energy here on Earth."
"It doesn't hurt that, at the end of 2022, a U.S. Department of Energy lab announced that it had produced a controlled fusion reaction that produced more power than the lasers had imparted to the fuel pellet. The experiment had crossed what's known as scientific breakeven, and while it's still a long ways from commercial breakeven, where the reaction produces more than the entire facility consumes, it was a long-awaited step that proved the underlying science was sound."
Fusion power has moved from speculative to tangible as startups and investors pursue commercially viable reactors. Progress has been driven by more powerful computer chips, advanced AI, and high-temperature superconducting magnets enabling improved reactor designs, simulations, and control systems. A Department of Energy lab achieved scientific breakeven in late 2022 by producing more fusion energy in a controlled reaction than the lasers delivered to the fuel pellet, validating core science despite remaining gaps to commercial breakeven. Startups like Commonwealth Fusion Systems have attracted large private investment to build experimental plants and accelerate commercialization.
Read at TechCrunch
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