Has fusion power’s “SpaceX” moment arrived?

The search for fusion power, long the exclusive precinct of deep-pocketed governments moving at glacial speeds, is now going commercial. That’s as promising a development for the early delivery of working fusion power reactors as commercialization proved for the decoding of the human genome and space travel.

The late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen “was among a growing number of ultra-rich clean-energy advocates pouring money into startups that are rushing to produce the first commercially viable fusion reactor long before the [government funded] $23 billion ITER program’s mid-century forecast. Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Peter Thiel are just three of the billionaires chasing what the late physicist Stephen Hawking called humankind’s most promising technology” — fusion energy. “‘It’s the SpaceX moment for fusion,’ said Christofer Mowry, who runs the Bezos-backed General Fusion Inc. near Vancouver, Canada.”

Bloomberg continues:

“The company Allen supported, TAE Technologies, stood alone when it was incorporated as Tri-Alpha Energy two decades ago. Now it has at least two dozen rivals, many funded by investors with a track record of disruption. As a result, there’s been an explosion of discoveries that are driving the kind of competition needed for a transformational breakthrough, according to Mowry.

“One of the clearest measures of progress in the field was on display last week in Gandhinagar, India, where the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency held its biennial fusion forum. The conference highlighted a record 800 peer-reviewed research papers, 60 percent more than a decade ago.”

Lockheed’s famous “skunk works” also has a serious fusion energy project. It received a patent in February 2018 with the promise of providing compact fusion power, although the compactness side of the vision is proving challenging.

Google is also active in the commercial race for fusion power generation, through its collaboration with Paul Allen’s TAE Technologies.

The two older, slow-moving government-supported fusion efforts are the tokamak and the stellarator.

China meanwhile claims that it is ahead of everyone else in the fusion power race.

Hat tip: Eaglebeak

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