I have been blogging a lot about nuclear fusion research recently. Fusion is the process by which lighter elements are fused into heavier elements accompanied by a release of energy. In order to trigger the process, it is necessary to compress a hydrogen plasma under great pressure while heating it to over a hundred million degrees Celsius. This is extremely difficult and decades have passed while researches try to find a way to contain the plasma for power generation.
Commonwealth Fusions Systems is a U.S. Alternative Energy company. They have raised an additional eighty-four million dollars from major investors in Europe and Asia. Singapore’s Temasek Holding Pte and Norway’s Equinor ASA are among the equity investors in Commonwealth Fusion Systems lasts round of funding. The money will be used to build a manufacturing facility and a headquarters building. The company is usually referred to as CFS and it was founded by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2018. To date, it has raised over two hundred million dollars.
Bob Mumgaard is Chief Executive Officer of CFS. He said “We’re entering the next phase. It’s time to put down some roots, get us all under one roof, and build some hardware for the future fusion business line.” While nuclear fusion could supply endless power cheaper, safer and cleaner than fossil fuels and nuclear fission reactors, it has been an elusive goal. No one has been able to build a fusion reactor that produces more energy than it consumes. There are a variety of new startups that believe they will be able to solve the problems preventing the construction of a viable commercial fusion reactor.
There have been some important technological advancements in the past few years that makes the prospect of a fission power reactor more likely such as powerful new magnets and sophisticated computer models.
CFS intends to demonstrate that its high-temperature superconducting magnets will work at scale next year. They hope to build a working prototype fusion reactor by 2025 or before. If they succeed in showing that fusion reactors can be built with these new types of magnets, then CFS will construct a commercial fusion power reactor by the early 2030s.
Over one billion two hundred million dollars have been injected into private fusion startups including Canada’s General Fusion Inc., TAE Technologies Inc. near Los Angeles and the U.K.’s Tokamak Energy Ltd. Twenty-two billions dollars has been poured into the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). Thirty-five countries have provided funding for ITER which is being constructed in southern France.
CFS’s investors include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Eni SpA. It is the only fusion startup that has received funds from two different oil companies. Mumgaard said that the fact that CFS was able to close its last funding during the coronavirus pandemic indicates that investors are still focused on mitigating climate change.
While we are still at least a decade from commercial nuclear fusion, if we can achieve it we will have a safe, cheap and clean source of power that will fuel our civilization to new heights.