Startups with laser beams: The companies trying to ignite fusion energy
A small group of startups have embarked on this quest, pursuing their own variations on this theme — different lasers, different techniques to set off the fusion reactions, different elements to fuse together.
«There has been rapid growth,» said Andrew Holland, CEO of the Fusion Industry Association, a trade group lobbying for policies to speed the development of fusion.
Private enterprise promises quick innovation, but it was a breakthrough achieved by a big, costly and ponderous government-run project that spurred this wave of attention to laser fusion.
Last December, after years of trying, the National Ignition Facility, or NIF, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory reported that it had finally lived up to its middle name: ignition. For the first time anywhere, a laser-induced burst of fusion produced more energy than that supplied by the incoming lasers.
«We're really excited by the NIF results,» said Kramer Akli, who manages the internal fusion energy sciences program at the U.S.
Energy Department.
A decade ago, a report by the National Academy of Sciences found much to like in the energy potential of laser fusion but recommended that the United States hold off major investments until ignition was achieved.
That time is now.
The dream of fusion is easy to explain.
The sun generates heat and light by jamming — fusing — hydrogen atoms together into helium. Harnessing that phenomenon on Earth could lead to a bountiful energy source that does not generate planet-warming carbon dioxide or long-lived radioactive waste.
For more than 70 years, fusion research has largely focused on mimicking the inside of the sun in reactors known as tokamaks, which trap superhot hydrogen gas within strong magnetic fields so
