Is Fusion About to Deliver? A UK Article Points to Success by the Mid-2020s and Commercial Deployment by 2030

December 28, 2019 – If we are going to tackle climate change while still delivering the energy the planet needs, nuclear has to be part of the mix according to many pundits. But nuclear power as we know it has produced Chernobyl, Fukushima, and Three-Mile Island. And radioactive waste from nuclear power plants remains an environmental problem.

Fusion reactors, not the fission ones we are using today, are seen as a source of clean and unlimited power but the delivery date on this technology has continued to recede into the future. Or so it would seem until now.

In yesterday’s Financial Times, Clive Cookson, Science Editor, reported that two British companies may have the fusion challenge figured out. Both are outgrowths of private laboratories. Their names are Tokamak Energy and First Light Fusion. And both have recently received significant private investment to continue the development of what they describe will be working commercial fusion reactors by 2030.

Tokamak Energy was recently named Disruptor to Watch in The Sunday Times Fast Track 100, one of ten picked by the U.K. publication in recognition of the potential of its technology to fundamentally change the energy industry. The company is on track to have an operational proof-of-concept by 2025, and a commercial power plant in operation by 2030. This year it made significant progress in the magnetic containment technology needed for achieving plasmas of 100 million degrees Celsius, the temperature needed for continuous controlled fusion.

First Light Fusion, a company spun out of Oxford University, has taken a different approach from magnetic contaiment of hot plasma to create its version of continuous controlled fusion. The company calls it an advanced implosion process that achieves the high temperatures and compressions to initiate fusion. Using a large number of copper projectiles fired at hypersonic speeds into a vessel containing deuterium and tritium fuel, in 2020, the company expects to demonstrate success producing more energy than needed to start the reaction. It has plans to have a commercial fusion plant on the grid by the early 2030s.

And then there is the Canadian company, General Fusion, who is targeting a 2030 date for a commercial fusion reactor of its own design. This month the company announced it had received $65 million from Jeff Bezos to build its first prototype plant. The technology it is developing is called Magnetized Target Fusion. It uses liquid-helium contained within a plasma that receives continuous pulses to drive up the pressure to create a continuous fusion reaction. The energy yield expected is ten times greater than the amount needed to start the reaction.

The above three represent fusion projects designed on a smaller scale. They are joined by other players including:

• ITER, the multi-billion dollar French-based project which may finally have a demonstration startup in place by 2025.
• Stellarator, a German-designed fusion reactor that may have a demonstration technology in place well before the mid-2020s.
• Alcator, an MIT project focused on creating better fuels for fusion reaction that could ultimately enhance the energy yield from all fusion reactor technology currently underway.

So is commercial fusion closer to joining the energy mix for a planet that craves more power every year? It would seem it cannot come fast enough because fusion may be the panacea for the planet in mitigating climate change. Commercial fusion produces no pollutants. Its deployment would allow utilities to end fossil fuel-based power generation once and for all.