In recent years, technological breakthroughs and the growing role of private investors have brought new promise to nuclear fusion – the effort to bring the energy source of the Sun and other stars down to Earth.Â
Launched in 2018, the Fusion Industry Association (FIA) comprises 22 companies, most of them startups, pursuing a variety of innovative approaches to realizing nuclear fusion as a commercial energy source.
In an October 6, 2020 article, FIA executive director Andrew Holland noted, “So far, fusion entrepreneurs and their investors have invested more than US$1.5 billion in private fusion energy start-ups.”Â
I have written about one of those companies, LPP Fusion in one of a series of articles in Asia Times. LPP Fusion is developing the Dense Plasma Focus, which generates fusion reactions in a pulsed regime by intense, self-focusing electrical discharges.
This article is devoted to a very different approach being pursued by FIA member Commonwealth Fusion Systems.
