After half a century of being “just a few years away”, are we actually about to see some real progress in fusion technology?
I’m not holding my breath, but there does seem to be a promising burst of new research and activity. More importantly, the private sector is dipping its oar. As we have seen, from telecommunications to space, nothing drives innovation quite so fast as the private sector.
They gave us money and facilities. We didn’t have to produce anything! You’ve never been out of college. You don’t know what it’s like out there. I worked in the private sector. They expect results
Ghostbusters
An Oxford start-up developing nuclear fusion technology has raised $25m (£19m) in fresh cash as it plots a ‘first-of-its-kind’ plant to be ready well ahead of government targets.
As recently reported, the British government is currently seeking a greenfields site to build a prototype reactor, which it plans to have operating by 2040. The Oxford start-up hopes to beat that by at least a few years.
First Light Fusion, which was spun out of Oxford University, said the latest funds would allow it to almost double its team of scientists and engineers to more than 60 staff, and upgrade its equipment to speed up development of the fusion plant, where energy is produced by fusing together atoms in a safe, non-polluting process.
It believes its technology, which uses a “projectile” process to spark the reaction, “accelerates the pathway to a commercial grid-ready reactor”, potentially bringing forward government targets which currently aim for a plant to be operating as soon as 2040.
First Light Fusion is planning to have developed its power plant in the 2030s, meaning commercial fusion could be possible as much as ten years earlier than the Government has been anticipating.
There is a palpable race suddenly going on in fusion projects. Government projects in France and the UK are competing with each other to get online first. The entry of private players into the field may well be the game-changer.
While this may be consistent with a common adage in the power industry: “Fusion power is always just 10 years away,” progress in harnessing fusion is unquestionable, and, if commercial fusion is achieved, the current generation is likely to see a total revolution in energy in their lifetimes.
Only Good News Daily
I’ll believe it when I see it. But I certainly hope to see it.
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