Fusion energy has long been hailed as the holy grail because of its potential for limitless amounts of clean energy. But that promise has trailed reality for decades, with billions of dollars in research leading to few breakthroughs. Now there’s optimism that is about to change, partly because of new startups funded by the likes of Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates.
Yahoo Finance went inside the country’s largest magnetic fusion facility for an exclusive look, to explore the challenges of bringing this technology to commercial use for the latest episode of NEXT.
“The race is on to actually see who can develop this and who can get it to the masses the fastest,” said David Callaway, former editor-in-chief of USA Today and founder of Callaway Climate Insights, a news and information service focused on the business of climate change.
The industry has now attracted more than $6 billion in funding to date, according to data from the Fusion Industry Association, with more than 40 startups aiming to become the first to commercialize nuclear fusion energy. The US government has set aside a record $1.48 billion for fusion research in the 2024 budget alone.
Fusion energy has been considered a game-changer largely because of how the power source is generated. Unlike nuclear fission, which occurs when a neutron slams into a larger atom, splitting it into two, fusion occurs by taking two atoms and smashing them together to create a heavier atom. The process of fusion is equivalent to the process that powers the sun and other stars. Even more attractive to researchers, fusion doesn’t produce nuclear waste that can be weaponized.
Despite the excitement around its potential, technological breakthroughs have largely been limited to government research labs – until now. In 2022 researchers at California-based Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory achieved ignition, generating more energy than the amount of energy it took to create the fusion reaction. But that gain lasted less than one-billionth of a second. Researchers are now looking to extend that reaction, a critical move in the next step towards re-creating the energy of a star that could provide unlimited clean energy for all.
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A little bit toroidally positive of the center of the chimney.
EVAN LEPPINK: What we're working on here is we're building our own version of a star on Earth.
DAVID CALLAWAY: Imagine if humankind could harness the sun. That's the potential for fusion energy.
- It's a goal that's eluded researchers for decades. But that promise of fusion energy has investors placing their bets. The industry's attracted $6 billion in funding with Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos part of a growing list of backers.
The US government set aside nearly $1.5 billion for fusion research in 2024 alone, a record amount.
- It is the Holy Grail. Energy without harmful carbon emissions, without radioactive waste.
DAVID CALLAWAY: Fusion technology could be disruptive at an even bigger level than the internet.
The only thing is we don't have a breakthrough yet.
- A breakthrough resulting in clean and unlimited amounts of energy. Success in research labs like this are critical with more than 40 companies looking to get fusion power on the grid globally. We were invited in for an exclusive look.
EVAN LEPPINK: So DIII-D is the largest operating fusion reactor in the United States. We're doing the fundamental research to figure out how we can create a nuclear fusion power plant in the future.
- Are you ready?
- Yeah. Lower hybrid.
- Zero degrees.
- Nuclear fusion is extremely difficult to do.
- OK. Other direction.
- (RADIO) I just do a double shot at the bottom. Thank you very much.
- Three seconds, two, one, shot in progress.
- The race is on to actually see who can develop this and who can get it to the masses the fastest.
- When you go inside the machine, it's always a very interesting experience.
EVAN LEPPINK: And before you go in, the first thing you have to do is get suited up. I have a hairnet. I don't want to leave anything behind in the reactor. These are decimeters to measure radiation exposure.
To get in, it's a little tight, you have to squeeze in.
- The stakes are high inside this vacuum chamber known as a tokamak.
- So we're not on the center. Keep going right there, right there, right there, other axis. That's actually pretty dead on.
- (RADIO) All right. Sweet.
- Tucked inside the country's largest magnetic fusion facility, researchers here are attempting to create a star on Earth. Chasing the promise of clean energy through a process called nuclear fusion.
EVAN LEPPINK: The word nuclear can be scary. There's definitely a lot of confusion between traditional nuclear power. So nuclear fission, which we currently have today. And nuclear fusion.
Nuclear fission takes a very large atom, splits it apart.
DAVID PACE: And the way fusion works is we're going to take two atoms. And we're going to smash them together.
EVAN LEPPINK: And when they fuse, they convert some of their mass into energy. So Einstein's famous E equals Mc squared equation. Nuclear fusion, generally, only happens in stars, where it's contained by the gravity of its own mass.
Here on Earth, what we do is we use strong magnetic fields to create a container called a tokamak.
PAUL SCHROEDER: The temperature inside the machine is about 10 times the core of the sun.
DAVID PACE: If you were to make this super hot fusion plasma and it would touch the wall, then the wall would be immediately vaporized.
The idea behind the tokamak is that you're going to make a bottle out of magnetic field. So that way, the super hot fusion plasma never touches the walls.
EVAN LEPPINK: We know how to do fusion. But we just can't do it efficiently enough to get more power out than what we put in.
- And that's the key to making fusion commercially viable. Finding a way to generate more energy than scientists used to create that fusion reaction.
JENNIFER GRANHOLM: Last week, scientists at the National Ignition Facility achieved fusion ignition. This is one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century.
- Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory achieved that energy gain two years ago. But that reaction lasted less than 1 billionth of a second. And it was done using lasers unlike a tokamak, which uses magnets.
EVAN LEPPINK: When NIF, the National Ignition Facility achieved ignition, they used very powerful lasers to create a reaction in a very small capsule. And that, perhaps, has difficulties scaling up. Whereas, what we do here, which is use very large scale powerful magnets seems to have a clearer path towards nuclear power plant that could power your home.
- Those here at DIII-D are trying to unlock that same breakthrough using magnets, with funding from the Department of Energy. That development could pave the path to commercialization.
DAVID PACE: And this is where this very healthy university, US National Laboratory, and private industry partnership comes into play.
PAUL SCHROEDER: Right now, DIII-D is an event. What that means is the machine is not operating on a daily basis. But what that means also is that we're upgrading a lot of systems.
EVAN LEPPINK: During this upgrade period, we're installing new systems. So that in the future, we can test new regimes of science.
So for the first time, we're testing a new technology that could improve the heating of the fusion reaction.
- All right. You ready?
EVAN LEPPINK: I got the head. And I've got the tail. For the first time, we put these modules into the machine.
- That's one. Seven down.
EVAN LEPPINK: Eight to go. This system will improve the stability of the plasma. The plasma fills this volume. And for fusion to happen, you need a hot, dense plasma. And this system helps increase temperature. It adds energy to the plasma. And it improves stability so that we can have more fusion reactions occur.
This is a system that could play a role in designing a future nuclear fusion power plant.
- The process of getting there is an expensive one. Billions of dollars just to build the reactors.
- So what we're going to do is we'll take this out here. And then we'll slide this rod in here.
- But big name investors are lining up to fund the research, because a potential breakthrough could transform industries. Just think, limitless energy, no fossil fuels, no carbon emissions, which is why you've got Google and Chevron, Bill Gates and Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos all placing their bets.
DIII-D isn't looking to commercialize this technology. It's laying the groundwork for it.
PAUL SCHROEDER: So when DIII-D is ready to go online, the tokamak is going to get closed up. We're going to turn the machine on.
- Starting set up for shot 555.
PAUL SCHROEDER: There's a couple of countdown timers.
- Three seconds, two, one, shot in progress.
PAUL SCHROEDER: And then at time zero, everything starts. And you can hear out in the power yard. You can hear a lot of the big electronics equipment, making these sounds, these pulsing sounds.
Magnetic fields are turned on. We inject gas. And that gas then turns into a plasma.
DAVID PACE: We put in about 20,000 to 40,000 homes worth of power, just to make this fusion plasma hot. And then on top of that, we shoot in electromagnetic waves. And each one of our seven sources puts in about the equivalent of 1,000 home kitchen microwaves.
EVAN LEPPINK: We call our plasma discharges that we have shots. They last five to eight seconds. And then it's over.
PAUL SCHROEDER: We're going to collect all this data. And all the science teams are going to work together to figure out what it means.
- Those seconds may seem short. But it's an eternity for fusion technology. The challenge is to control those reactions long enough so they can sustain the plasma for much longer months at a time for a commercial power plant.
PAUL SCHROEDER: The perennial question for what we do here is when you will have power on the grid. I've seen estimates within the next couple of years for some of these startups to 2050 and beyond.
- Roughly two dozen other reactors are racing to be first. In France, 35 countries have joined forces to build the world's largest fusion reactor with a price tag of $20 billion. But so far, progress has been slow.
- You know what I mean?
PAUL SCHROEDER: Yeah. So we have this guy is a reticle. That guy is a reticle. This way. And then you just adjust whatever you have to on this guy.
- As research labs like DIII-D aim to achieve new milestones for energy output, larger tokamaks under construction are looking to extend the length of fusion reactions.
At Commonwealth Fusion Systems, an MIT spinoff backed by Google and Bill Gates, researchers hope to fire the first shot in their reactor later next year. ITER in France is expected to come online later this decade.
EVAN LEPPINK: With climate change looming, I think the desire for a technology, like nuclear fusion is only going to grow.
DAVID CALLAWAY: There's a lot more willingness to talk about unproven types of renewable energy like fusion, because we're running out of options. And so you're seeing fusion research appear more and more at these global summits like COP28.
JOHN KERRY: Fusion may turn out to be just an enormous game changer.
DAVID CALLAWAY: You're seeing politicians like, John Kerry, talk about it. You're seeing international groups of research come together with promises of funding from various governments.
DAVID PACE: The potential for fusion energy is that we power the world's energy needs for millions of years without harmful environmental impacts.
DAVID CALLAWAY: This is a long-term project that could save humanity. The existential question is, will it be ready in time?
