For fusion power aficionados, hitting “breakeven” is something of a Holy Grail: the point at which a fusion reaction produces more power than was required to ignite it. Only one scientific experiment, at the National Ignition Facility, has accomplished that feat, and it took over a decade of tweaking the system to achieve the monumental […]
Every fusion startup that has raised over $100M
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 […]
Marvel Fusion lands $70M for laser-powered fusion bet
When it comes to fusion power, there are two basic approaches: One, create a small star here on Earth that’s held in place by powerful magnetic fields. Two, use intense lasers to make a succession of even smaller stars, but repeat the process several times per second. Moritz von der Linden likes his odds with […]
Every fusion startup that has raised over $300M
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 […]
‘Star Wars’ lasers and waterfalls of molten salt: How Xcimer plans to make fusion power happen
Conner Galloway and Alexander Valys have followed developments in nuclear fusion research since they were roommates at MIT some 20 years ago. For much of that time, it wasn’t the most exciting pastime: breakthroughs were few and far between, and commercial fusion remained perpetually on the horizon, always 20 years away from providing inexpensive, inexhaustible, […]