Latest news with #fusion
Forbes
an hour ago
- Business
- Forbes
Fusion Energy Is The Key To World Hegemony
What would it take for the United States to lose its hegemony to a rising power like China? Right now, America appears to be ahead economically and militarily. However, there is a stark difference between America's national strategy (insofar as one exists) and China's. The US under President Trump calls for regression. It seeks to restore a manufacturing economy that peaked in the 1950s—like an elderly man trying to restore hair where it hasn't grown for decades. It is doubling down on domestic oil, gas and coal. Through tariffs, disparagement of NATO and aggression towards allies like Canada and Denmark, the administration has alienated partners that long supported a US-led world order. Fusion will be a key element to become an energy superpower. (Wal van Lierop) China, meanwhile, has a tremendous lead in developing the economy of the future. It has a near monopoly on rare earth minerals, which are needed for electronics, renewable energy systems, defense technologies and more. China leads in solar, wind and batteries, the energy systems growing at the fastest rate. It is ahead in electric vehicles, industrial robotics and drones as well. It probably has achieved parity in artificial intelligence and may surpass the US soon. If China were to take Taiwan, it would control the global market for advanced chip manufacturing. In the background, but probably most importantly, China may be on track to commercialize fusion energy before the US or its disgruntled allies. Unlike the US, China has no domestic energy industry with vocal lobbyists (and purchasable politicians) to slow progress. It is funding fusion as a national strategy while private fusion companies in the West are at the mercy of investors that, for the most part, chase low risk and quick returns. Fusion promises cheap, plentiful, baseload energy without carbon emissions. AI, data centers and industrial robotics powered by fusion would produce goods and services at much lower costs than value chains dependent on fossil-fired electricity. Militaries built on swarms of small, cheap, electronic drones and robots—powered by small, distributed fusion facilities deep underground, safe from attack—would have an edge over competitors using large, expensive, petroleum-powered vehicles with vulnerable supply chains. I cannot overstate the ramifications of China developing fusion first. As an analogy, imagine if Japan and Germany had uncovered vast reserves of oil at home in the 1920s. American and Soviet oil gave the Allies a strategic advantage over the Axis powers. Had the situation been reversed, World War II could have ended differently. While private fusion companies in the West have raised about $8 billion total, China is investing at least $1.5 annually into fusion projects—double what the US government spends. Japanese and German investments in fusion don't even come close. Canada, for the record, has no fusion funding strategy. Moreover, the government of British Columbia, home of industry leader General Fusion, seems not to understand the value of this crown asset.* On all fronts nuclear, China is leaping ahead. In April, its scientists added fresh fuel to an operational thorium molten salt reactor—a first. The thorium reserves found in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China, could theoretically meet Chinese energy demand for thousands of years. The kicker: this reactor design originated in the US. As project lead Xu Hongjie put it, 'The US left its research publicly available, waiting for the right successor. We were that successor." Moreover, in January, China's Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) sustained a fusion reaction for 1,066 seconds, setting a new record. Its Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak (BEST) fusion reactor could come online by 2027 and is expected to produce five times the amount of energy it consumes. When BEST announces this milestone, Western fusion companies may be announcing that they've run out of funding. To China, fusion is not a startup project—it's a matter of national interest and security. Its scientists are patenting more fusion-related technologies than any other single country and graduating more doctorates in fusion-related fields. And because China is the top refiner and exporter of the critical minerals needed in fusion reactors (e.g., for magnets), no external force is going to slow their progress. In the meantime, China has a cheap gas station next door—Russia—supplying all the fossil fuels China could need in exchange for support in its war with Ukraine. That support includes critical minerals needed by Russian arms manufacturers. Is fusion energy, along with other Chinese-dominated technologies, enough to end US hegemony? In 1988, historian Paul Kennedy published The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, a book that tried to explain the relative success (and failure) of powerful states. According to Kennedy, their rise and fall '…shows a very significant correlation over the longer term between productive and revenue-raising capacities on the one hand and military strength on the other.' Essentially, states must balance economic prosperity with strategy. Technological breakthroughs are vital to both. Innovation creates wealth, which enables the state to invest in defense and win wars. While underinvestment in defense leaves the state vulnerable to other powers, overextension and overspending on defense can run an economy into the ground, leaving it unable to sustain a strong military. Now, picture a great power—China—with a military to rival the US and fusion reactors that provide virtually unlimited energy. Imagine the clout China would have in establishing ports, military bases and consumer markets around the world if it could license that fusion technology. A China that exceeds the US in energy, industry, intelligence, mobility and defense is positioned to usurp it. Of course, China could bungle its advantage. Authoritarian regimes have a habit of mismanaging internal dissent, falsifying reality and making preventable mistakes. The rise of China is inevitable, but the self-inflicted decline of the US and its allies isn't. Rather, it's a choice reflecting how societies invest their resources and envision their future. *Disclosure: The author is an investor in General Fusion and sits on its board of directors.
Geek Wire
a day ago
- Politics
- Geek Wire
‘We're definitely on the back foot': U.S. risks losing fusion energy race to China, industry leaders warn
Sustainability: News about the rapidly growing climate tech sector and other areas of innovation to protect our planet. SEE MORE Zap Energy's FuZE-Q fusion device. (Zap Photo) REDMOND, Wash. — The race to lead in artificial intelligence isn't the only event in which the U.S. and China are competing for dominance. The pursuit of fusion — the 'Holy Grail' of clean energy — is also pitting the superpowers against each other, and American tech leaders worry China could surge ahead. At a Technology Alliance conference on Tuesday, Washington state companies building commercial fusion technologies raised concerns about China's strategy to pour resources into fusion. 'The U.S. is not committed to fusion. China is, by orders of magnitude,' said Ben Levitt, the head of R&D for Zap Energy, speaking on a fusion panel at the Seattle Investor Summit+Showcase. While the U.S. government spent approximately $800 million a year on fusion efforts during the Biden administration, China is investing more than twice that annually, IEEE Spectrum and others report. The Trump administration has taken action supporting nuclear fission, which powers today's nuclear reactors, but has not shown the same interest in fusion. The sector has become increasingly reliant on venture capital to fund its progress. China is also focused on training fusion physicists and engineers, while President Trump is slashing funding for scientific research. Fusion is so highly sought after given its potential to provide nearly limitless, carbon-free power, which could be critical to meet growing energy demands from AI applications and the global push to decarbonize transportation, the electrical grid, heating and cooling, industrial applications and elsewhere. 'The U.S. started with a very good hand in fusion and has played it extremely poorly,' Levitt said. 'So, yeah, we're definitely on the back foot.' The conference panel also included Brian Riordan, co-founder and chief operating officer of Avalanche Energy, and Anthony Pancotti, co-founder and head of R&D for Helion Energy. Riordan argued that while China appears to be making strides in the race, what matters even more is who develops the most affordable technology. A fusion energy panel at the Technology Alliance's Seattle Investor Summit+Showcase, from left: Anthony Pancotti from Helion Energy, Brian Riordan from Avalanche Energy, Ben Levitt from Zap Energy and moderator Lisa Stiffler from GeekWire. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) Physicists for decades have pursued fusion energy. But replicating the reactions that power the Sun and stars is massively challenging and requires technologies that can generate super high pressure and temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius, and sustain those conditions — plus efficiently capture the energy that fusion produces. In December 2022, the U.S. National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory hit a key milestone in fusion research, demonstrating that fusion reactions here on Earth could release more power than required to produce them. Images published in January revealed that China appears to be building a fusion research facility modeled on NIF — but even larger. Others suggest the site could be a giant Z-pinch machine — similar to the technology being pursued by Zap. Years ago, a Chinese website posted a graphic of a fusion device that bore a troubling resemblance to Helion's technology, the company has said. 'We have seen copycats in China already, and it is terrifying,' Pancotti said on Tuesday. 'They can mobilize people and money at a scale that is beyond even what venture capital can do in this country. And so I think there's real concern there, and there's real concern around supply chain, too.' Added Levitt: 'I wouldn't be surprised if every single one of our [fusion] concepts has a city designated to it in China.'
Sustainability Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Sustainability Times
'U.S. Delivers a Monster': 60-Foot Superconducting Magnet Sent to France to Power the Heart of the ITER Fusion Reactor
Illustration of an 18-meter-tall superconducting magnet central to the ITER fusion project. Image generated by AI.
E&E News
6 days ago
- Science
- E&E News
DOE unveils AI supercomputer aimed at transforming energy sector
The Department of Energy announced details Thursday for an advanced supercomputer that would speed up development of technologies such as artificial intelligence and fusion, priorities for Energy Secretary Chris Wright. The supercomputer, NERSC-10, is expected to provide more than 10 times the performance of the most advanced machine at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, which is housed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. DOE said it is partnering with Dell Technologies — a leader in servers for artificial intelligence — to develop the supercomputer, which would be powered by chips from Nvidia. 'Doudna is a time machine for science — compressing years of discovery into days,' Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, said in a news release. The system, expected to be delivered in 2026, is named after Jennifer Doudna, a biochemist at the lab who won the 2020 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Advertisement Wright, who visited the lab Thursday, called the system 'a powerhouse for rapid innovation that will transform our efforts to develop abundant, affordable energy supplies.'
National Post
27-05-2025
- Business
- National Post
Type One Energy Completes Formal Initial Design Review of Fusion Power Plant
Article content KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Type One Energy announced today that it had successfully completed the first formal design review of Infinity Two, which is based on the world's only implementable, peer-reviewed physics basis for a fusion power plant recently published by the prestigious Journal of Plasma Physics. The Infinity Two design is progressing in support of a potential fusion power plant project with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), using Type One Energy stellarator technology. Article content Article content The Infinity Two design review board, which was chaired by Type One Energy Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Thomas Sunn Pedersen, included several outside experts, including Dr. George H. 'Hutch' Neilson from the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Dr. Paolo Ferroni from the Westinghouse Electric Company, to provide independent assessments of the engineering work performed by Type One Energy. Article content 'It is the first serious fusion power plant design that I've seen,' said Dr. Neilson. 'The work they've done to date provides a sound foundation for continued design development of what could be the first system to produce net electricity from fusion.' Article content Dr. Ferroni, the Chief Engineer for Advanced Reactors – GenIV/Fusion at Westinghouse Electric Company, added 'I think it is important that the Type One Energy team is taking a comprehensive plant-level approach to develop their technology which includes a description of all necessary systems, not just the plasma core.' Article content Successful completion of the initial design review confirms that the Infinity Two technology approach, architecture, performance, and reliability requirements remain aligned with the expectations of TVA and the broader global energy market for a commercially viable First of a Kind (FOAK) fusion power plant. Article content The Type One Energy Infinity Two fusion power plant is being designed to put a nominal 350MWe on the electricity grid. This design is based on the company's groundbreaking stellarator fusion physics basis, which for the first time realistically considered, in a comprehensive and unified manner, the complex relationship between competing requirements for plasma performance, power plant startup, construction logistics, reliability, and economics utilizing actual power plant operating experience. The Journal of Plasma Physics considers this approach to be '… setting the gold standard for how this is done.' Article content The Infinity Two architecture is grounded in stellarator fusion technology. This technology has, uniquely within the fusion industry, demonstrated stable, continuous steady-state operation at large scale by the W7-X machine. By properly architecting Infinity Two, Type One Energy is creating a proprietary fusion power plant design that supports a compelling 2-year power plant operating cycle separated by 30-day planned maintenance outages using today's existing materials and enabling technologies. The company also made use of its partner-rich commercialization program to access the power generation industry's deep expertise in power plant engineering design. Among other firms, Atkins-Realis assisted in developing the design of those Infinity Two systems and structures not part of Type One Energy's core focus on the stellarator fusion technology. Article content 'Our ability to efficiently architect the initial Infinity Two design in an efficient, partner rich manner reaffirms our commitment to pursuing the lowest risk, shortest schedule, path to a commercially viable fusion power plant,' said Christofer Mowry, Chief Executive Officer for Type One Energy. 'The energy industry needs more reliable, clean, power generation technology that can meet the rapidly increasing demand for electricity and we are delivering a commercially compelling solution.' Article content The progress Type One Energy is making on its Infinity Two fusion power plant design, together with its collaboration with TVA, has attracted the attention of the global energy industry. Several prominent energy utilities and industrial companies have expressed an interest in Infinity Two and participation in Type One Energy's deployment of its first-generation fusion power plant technology. Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content
