Fusion

Fusion energy has the potential to provide abundant, clean power. Now, the race is on to develop the world’s first commercial plant.

“One day, fusion energy could dramatically increase demand for diode lasers,” said Hagen Zimer, CEO for laser technology and a member of the managing board of TRUMPF. If laser-driven fusion power plants become reality, they could create demand far beyond today’s laser market across the supply chain — from gallium-arsenide (GaAs) semiconductor fabs to automated packaging, power electronics, optics, and high-energy laser systems. Whatever the prevailing fusion architecture, demand for diode lasers could vastly exceed the capacity of today’s diode laser industry. According to TRUMPF’s Hagen Zimer, ‘We are talking about millions of bars, potentially 10 million bars for just one power plant.’...

Dig a little deeper and you’ll find a thriving research program with exotic atoms that won’t solve the energy crisis but stretches the boundaries of physics. The post Is There Anything Left in the Dream of Cold Fusion? first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Blue Laser Fusion, a developer of advanced pulsed laser technology targeting directed energy defense systems and inertial confinement fusion energy, completed its financing transaction and alternative public offering. Financing was executed via a private placement offering yielding total proceeds of $34 million, including an initial closing of $25 million in private placement units. Proceeds from the capital raise will serve to accelerate Blue Laser Fusion’s engineering milestones, operational expansion and technology deployment, according to the company. Concurrent with the transaction, Blue Laser Fusion additionally completed a business combination and reverse merger with Unite Acquisition 2 Corp. In directed energy,...

Dig a little deeper and you’ll find a thriving research program with exotic atoms that won’t solve the energy crisis but stretches the boundaries of physics. The post Is There More to Cold Fusion Than Failure and Fraud? first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Copilot Fusion Arrives Developers on paid Copilot plans used 47 different AI models in September, and no single

Intel Corporation has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Classiq, a provider of quantum computing software. The acquisition of Classiq would combine Intel’s quantum software platform, scalable silicon spin-qubit technology and advanced semiconductor manufacturing expertise with Classiq’s automated quantum algorithm synthesis platform. The combination would enable Intel to become a full-stack quantum solutions provider, while also allowing the company to add quantum processing units to its already diverse compute platform portfolio spanning CPUs, GPUs, and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Intel intends to continue to support Classiq’s existing multi-platform integrations and ensure a modality-...

For the first time, a team of physicists in the U.S. has clearly demonstrated a "helicon current drive" in a nuclear fusion experiment. Led by Jeff Lestz at General Atomics, San Diego, the team took advantage of the latest advances in tokamak technology to show that radio waves steered to travel around the donut-shaped device can be absorbed by its confined plasma, driving an electric current inside it.

Researchers fed fusion data to a new chip to see whether it could spot signs that superhot plasma is about to go haywire

The U.S. hasn’t detonated a nuclear weapon since 1992. Now a fusion start-up whose co-founders include former national lab scientists could help conduct experiments that make sure the stockpile works

Join the audience for a live webinar on 10 November 2026 sponsored by IOP Publishing's journal, Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion The post The roadmap for runaway electron-induced plasma facing component damage in tokamaks appeared first on Physics World.

When corals are stressed by pollution, high water temperatures or other environmental changes, they can lose the microscopic algae living inside them and on which they depend for food. As a result, they turn white, a phenomenon known as coral bleaching. They will not die straight away, but it will be game over if the stress continues long enough for them to starve.

Space-based solar power has the potential to meet Earth's energy needs many times over. Will it see the light of day?

Germany Ties Fusion Money to Milestones Germany will pay fusion startups only as they prove progress, and it

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory may have found a dramatically more efficient route to fusion energy by reversing the traditional approach: heating plasma first, then increasing its density. Their calculations could help future reactors reach self-sustaining fusion with far less energy while avoiding hidden problems that make ignition harder.

Author(s): J. B. Lestz, R. I. Pinsker, B. Van Compernolle, S. X. Tang, A. Dupuy, A. M. Garofalo, L. McAllister, C. P. Moeller, C. C. Petty, M. Porkolab, M. P. Ross, G. Rutherford, and A. TorrezanHelicon current drive has been observed experimentally for the first time in dedicated DIII-D tokamak experiments, providing a proof-of-principle and an attractive source of efficient current drive in reactor-grade tokamak plasmas. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 155101] Published Fri Oct 09, 2026

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For more than 70 years, fusion energy researchers have used a particular equation to judge whether a plasma would stay hot and dense enough—for long enough—to reach a point where it could sustain itself without any more external power added. While that equation marks the finish line, also known as ignition, it says nothing about the best way to reach it. New research from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) maps a path to ignition conditions using far less energy than any other path.

Author(s): V. I. LyashukThere is much interest and activity in identifying transuranium isotopes and determining their cosmological origins, such as neutron star mergers. This paper studies how one could determine the production of transuranium isotopes in pulse nucleosynthesis based on isotopic yield ratios, a process that is very dependent on neutron fluence. The relationship between the neutron flux and abundances is determined in a rather unique way: by looking at yields from nuclear tests conducted during the Plowshares program. Making use of these nuclear tests (indicated in the figure) may help determine whether the periodic table has been extended in natural events in space. [Phys. Rev. C 114, 044603] Published Thu Oct 01, 2026

Several companies have made significant headway toward nuclear fusion propulsion drives. Is humanity on the brink of a revolution in spaceflight?

A few days before the Chuseok holiday, a long line of customers stretched past three neighboring stores outside Pungnyeon Tteok, a rice cake shop in Incheon’s Bupyeong Traditional Market earlier this week. They were not waiting for “songpyeon,” the traditional rice cake associated with Chuseok, but for “pizza seolgi,” a fusion rice cake topped with tomato sauce, cheese and pepperoni slices on a base of steamed white rice cake. Despite a limit of four pieces per customer, the line showed no sign of letting up. Pungnyeon Tteok owner Hwang Seong-un, 50, said he has been selling pizza seolgi for about two months, with an average of around 1,000 people visiting daily. He said the rice cakes typically sell out between 5:30 and 6 p.m. That day, ingredients ran out at around 5:40 p.m., prompting the shop to put up a notice saying it had closed for the day. Traditional-market rice cake shops are bustling ahead of Chuseok, thanks in part to the popularity of unusual rice cake varieties such as

Laser-driven inertial fusion company Marvel Fusion has launched Caelora, a wholly-owned subsidiary to commercialize high-energy laser technology. As a separate legal entity, Caelora is intended to shorten the technical learning curve for high-energy laser systems and strengthen the supply chain upon which fusion will depend. With the launch of its Caelora subsidiary, Marvel Fusion has become the latest fusion company to pursue revenue streams outside the confines of yet-to-be-realized fusion power plants. Courtesy of Marvel Fusion. Caelora builds on core technology developed under Marvel Fusion’s laser program in cooperation with Pulsed Light Technologies (PLT), which was funded by SPRIND, the German Federal Agency for...

Tennessee, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the UK announced a partnership to advance fusion energy, focusing on supply chains and workforce development, aiming for commercial deployment.

Scientists blasted diamonds with lasers to get the best measurement of the mineral's melting point yet. The new, more accurate numbers could help improve fusion experiments and studies of giant planets.

A team of scientists from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Cleveland Clinic and IBM (NYSE: IBM), has calculated nine

Princeton researchers have tested an AI system that can monitor and control fusion plasma in milliseconds, reacting far faster than a human operator. In one experiment, it predicted a damaging instability about 200 milliseconds before it appeared and adjusted the plasma to stop it from forming.

Inside some fusion energy systems, particles hotter than the core of the sun can become unruly in a few thousandths of a second, far faster than any human operator can react. A new software framework developed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and Princeton University hands those split-second decisions to artificial intelligence (AI), while keeping the machine safe and humans firmly in charge of the goals.

Researchers at the Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures have, for the first time, identified a model cell line for a rare form of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). "The KOPM-88 cell line is, to date, the first and only known cell line worldwide to carry the KMT2A::SEPTIN6 fusion gene," explains Dr. Stefan Nagel, head of the Molecular Genetics research group in the Department of Human and Animal Cell Cultures at the DSMZ. "Thus, cancer research now has an urgently needed model system to specifically investigate this aggressive subtype of leukemia and develop novel therapeutic approaches." The work is published in the journal Cells.

In the last decade, scientists have shown that fusion energy can work, as a physical process. Next question:

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have found that implosions designed for inertial fusion energy (IFE) can tolerate significant imperfections before performance abruptly declines, a finding that could inform the design of fuel targets for future fusion power plants.

Less than a year after earning his doctoral degree in chemical and biomolecular engineering from Rice University, Thiago

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Fusion reactors, devices that generate energy by fusing light atomic nuclei at extremely high temperatures, could contribute to ongoing efforts aimed at producing electricity more sustainably. The extreme environment inside these devices, however, can damage materials that surround the superheated, electrically charged plasma where the nuclear fusion reaction takes place.

Future fusion power plants aim to recreate the heart of a star here on Earth to power our future energy needs. While the core fusion plasma will burn at hundreds of millions of degrees, the surrounding structural components must handle sudden, punishing heat loads that rival the extreme temperatures faced by spacecraft upon reentry into Earth's atmosphere. Copper and its alloys are primary candidates for handling these intense heat fluctuations, making it vital to understand exactly how the metal behaves when pushed to its melting point.

Diamond is more than a dazzling gem—the extremely hard form of carbon makes up the pellet that encases fuel for inertial confinement fusion, and scientists believe it rains down deep inside ice giant planets like Neptune and Uranus. In both cases, the material experiences enormous pressures. Until now, experiments and simulations have disagreed about how it actually behaves under those conditions.

New framework includes 10 parameters that can be used to evaluate the viability of fusion The post Researchers propose ‘economic Q’ metric for judging fusion power plant viability appeared first on Physics World.

Author(s): Pedro F. Gil, Weiping Li, Julianne Stratton, Alan A. Kaptanoglu, and Eve V. StensonRecasting fusion coil design as a highly nonconvex equality-constrained optimization problem with an augmented Lagrangian method leads to a class of stellarator coils that exhibit enhanced physics performance and meet essential design requirements. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 065101] Published Fri Aug 07, 2026

Fusion systems need inner walls that can withstand extreme heat. One promising solution uses liquid lithium to protect the walls, held like water in a sponge made of the exceptionally strong metal tungsten. An advanced manufacturing process can be used to make tungsten into sponge-like wall tiles with lots of pores for flowing liquid lithium. But this process also leaves the tungsten contaminated with other materials, such as carbon, oxygen or nitrogen.

During the Space Age and Cold War, fusion-powered spacecraft systems were investigated as a possible means of reaching another star system within a human lifetime. Many of the proposed ideas are still on the table today, waiting for future advancements to make them realizable.

Experiment suggests the environment matters when deuterium fuses The post Nuclear fusion persists at ultralow energies inside metal foils appeared first on Physics World.

Author(s): Charles DaySupercomputer simulations reveal how turbulence supports a Goldilocks regime for operating a fusion reactor. [Physics 19, s95] Published Thu Jul 30, 2026

Author(s): Kaiyu Zhang, Wladimir Zholobenko, Andreas Stegmeir, Michael Faitsch, Konrad Eder, Christoph Pitzal, Frank Jenko, and ASDEX Upgrade TeamSupercomputer simulations reveal how turbulence supports a Goldilocks regime for operating a fusion reactor. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 055102] Published Thu Jul 30, 2026

The German Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) is funding a hub for laser fusion. With sites in Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein and Hesse, the hub unites industry and academia/research around a central aim: to construct a commercial laser fusion power plant in Germany. In tandem with fusion companies Marvel Fusion and Focused Energy, the hub is to be led by the IFE Innovation Network e.V., an association yet to be formally established. The companies will serve as hub co-founders and co-shareholders, and are developing the campus together with European XFEL, DESY, the University of Hamburg, Kiel University, the University of Rostock, along with a broad network of additional scientific and industrial partners and...

A varied group of investors has provided Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) with another $1 billion in equity financing, with the company on July 30 saying the funding supports the group's continuing work toward operating a commercial fusion energy power plant. The post Commonwealth Fusion Systems Raises Another $1 Billion as Work on Commercial Power Plant Continues appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Fusion at high temperatures powers the sun and, if harnessed, could provide a potential source of energy here on Earth. But controlling fusion reactions has other benefits. The process also generates subatomic particles called neutrons that are used in a range of applications spanning medicine, research and national security.

With the completion of the assembly of the vacuum vessel sector module, a core device of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in which HD Hyundai Heavy Industries participated in manufacturing, a technical turning point toward the realization of the artificial sun has been rea

California-headquartered Pacific Fusion announced that a pulsed-power prototype designed and built at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has surpassed 3,000 shots under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the company. Pacific Fusion on July 16 said this marks a key milestone in the development of high-gain fusion, and provides a practical example of government-industry […] The post Pacific Fusion Says Pulsed-Power Prototype Hits Milestone at National Lab appeared first on POWER Magazine.

University of Arizona researchers have demonstrated a promising new application for graphene nanoribbons, a nanoscale semiconductor material with the potential to withstand extreme environments. The team's findings could help clear a key hurdle to bringing fusion energy to the electric grid.

Author(s): Benjamin Wang, Henry Fetsch, and Nathaniel J. FischThe fast ignition paradigm previously developed for inertial confinement fusion is here extended to magnetized linear inertial fusion. The authors’ model showcases fast ignition’s potential to lead to more practical, cost-effective, and engineering-wise viable magnetized linear inertial fusion designs. #AdvancingField #ClearMotivation [Phys. Rev. E 114, 015211] Published Wed Jul 15, 2026

Some 70% of fusion firms still expect private fusion to deliver commercial electricity by the 2030s The post Private investment in fusion firms jumps by $4.5bn appeared first on Physics World.

Nuclear fusion inches closer after scientists combine supercomputing, AI and quantum computing to blueprint a way to create more tritium.

A team of scientists from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Cleveland Clinic and IBM has calculated nine molecular configurations of a promising material to produce fuel for fusion energy—the first known instance of such computations on quantum computers.

Non-intrusive technique could enable round-the-clock, offsite monitoring of reactor operations The post Antineutrino detectors could spot signs that a fusion reactor is producing weapons-grade plutonium appeared first on Physics World.

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Proxima Fusion has raised $468 million as it looks to move towards commercializing the promising but infamously difficult technical challenge of nuclear fusion.

Proxima Fusion has raised $468 million as it looks to move towards commercializing the promising but infamously difficult technical challenge of nuclear fusion.

As we scour and scorch the Earth for deeper wells of energy, investors and government agencies are pouring

Fusion Bionic, a Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS spinout company developing laser-based solutions for large-area and high-speed processing, has secured €8.2 million ($9.3M) in a seed financing round. The company is pioneering an approach to achieve functional surfaces that do not require additional coating or wet chemical processes. It plans to use the capital to accelerate its expansion from a technology provider to a provider of industrial machine solutions. An additional €2.4 million will be allocated to two major industrial projects in which the bio-inspired laser technology will be translated into large-scale applications and machine solutions, the company said. The Fusion Bionic team is...

A quadrupole mass analyser designed for fusion research combines radiation hardness with the ability to distinguish between the light atomic species involved in the nuclear reaction The post Mass spectrometry delivers fusion insights appeared first on Physics World.

Researchers were unsure whether alpha particles would aid or hinder fusion. Simulations suggest they help, by dampening turbulence.

Researchers at European XFEL, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Rostock University and other collaborating institutions have used high-precision experiments to demonstrate that the most widely used models for the behavior of electrons in warm dense matter are inaccurate. Warm dense matter is challenging to study, but also is of key importance for a plethora of research, including the investigation of planetary interiors, materials science and laser fusion experiments. The study is published in Physical Review Letters.

As we scour and scorch the Earth for deeper wells of energy, investors and government agencies are pouring billions into nuclear fusion research. The hope is that fusion may ultimately provide a virtually limitless source of clean energy.

Fusion energy has spent decades trapped in an expensive cycle of trial and error. Now, a Chinese startup believes AI-powered simulation software could dramatically accelerate reactor development by helping scientists test designs virtually before committing to costly real-world experiments.

Experiments at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF) require breathtaking precision. Each of the 192 lasers is focused to a width of a few millimeters to enter a 3-millimeter hole at the top or bottom of a 2-centimeter (0.8-inch) gold canister known as a hohlraum.

In the next few decades, many physicists are hopeful that nuclear fusion could become a realistic source of practically limitless energy. But before this can happen, it will be critical to ensure that reactors cannot be covertly misused to produce materials for nuclear weapons.

Xcimer Energy announced that the U.S. Department of Energy approved its Athena design for fusion power plants in Denver, aiming to commercialize fusion energy through innovative technology.

Following the close of its $240 million financing round, Focused Energy plans to consolidate its activities in the field of laser-driven radiation sources into an independent entity under the name Sourcelight. With this move, the company said it is laying the groundwork for the industrial transfer of selected technological building blocks emerging from its laser fusion development. Sourcelight is intended to bring the laser-driven radiation sources (LDRS) technology developed by Focused Energy into targeted industrial applications. The technology combines laser-driven high-energy x-rays and neutrons in a single system. This not only enables high-resolution imaging, but also additional insights into material composition —...

A Colorado-based fusion energy company said the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) has approved the company's preconceptual technical design for its commercial fusion power plant. The post DOE Approves Xcimer Energy Fusion Power Plant Design appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Pour out a bottle of Head & Shoulders for Ivan Reitman's Evolution on its 25-year anniversary.

The work is an important step to understanding the physics of “negative triangularity” The post Research on magnetic plasma confinement wins Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion Outstanding Paper Prize appeared first on Physics World.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) announced the company has published five peer-reviewed physics basis papers detailing its work on the group's ARC fusion power plant. The post CFS Publishes Papers Validating Physics of ARC Fusion Power Plant appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Fusion energy group Helion said the company has completed a $465-million Series G investment round, increasing the Everett, Washington-based group's valuation to $15.5 billion. Helion is among dozens of U.S. and global companies working to commercialize fusion power. The post Helion Announces $465-Million Funding Round to Support Fusion Energy appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Nature is the foremost international weekly scientific journal in the world and is the flagship journal for Nature Portfolio. It publishes the finest peer-reviewed research in all fields of science and technology on the basis of its originality, importance, interdisciplinary interest, timeliness, accessibility, elegance and surprising conclusions. Nature publishes landmark papers, award winning news, leading comment and expert opinion on important, topical scientific news and events that enable readers to share the latest discoveries in science and evolve the discussion amongst the global scientific community.

Nature is the foremost international weekly scientific journal in the world and is the flagship journal for Nature Portfolio. It publishes the finest peer-reviewed research in all fields of science and technology on the basis of its originality, importance, interdisciplinary interest, timeliness, accessibility, elegance and surprising conclusions. Nature publishes landmark papers, award winning news, leading comment and expert opinion on important, topical scientific news and events that enable readers to share the latest discoveries in science and evolve the discussion amongst the global scientific community.

Colorado-headquartered Xcimer Energy has announced the start of operations for Phoenix, what the company calls the largest privately owned laser system in the world. Phoenix, named after the legendary bird from Greek and Egyptian mythology, is the company’s prototype for commercializing laser fusion. The post Xcimer Energy Starts Operations of Prototype for Laser Fusion Architecture appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Author(s): Alexander Glaser, Robert J. Goldston, and Patrick HuberResearch and development of fusion energy has recently gained a strong impetus from private investment. While less of a proliferation risk than conventional fission systems, modified fusion systems could produce material usable in nuclear weapons. This paper examines an innovative use of antineutrino detectors to find misuse of fusion systems. Since antineutrinos are so penetrating, this technique carries near-zero interference with fusion energy system operation. [Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 064004] Published Tue Jun 02, 2026

Another U.S.-based energy company said its technology has achieved key performance metrics that advance its goal of commercial fusion by the mid 2030s. California-headquartered Pacific Fusion on June 2 said its core pulsed power technology is on track to achieve net facility gain by 2030. That’s the state where the “entire fusion machine produces more […] The post Pacific Fusion Touts Funding, Technical Achievements on Way to Fusion Power appeared first on POWER Magazine.

New Jersey-based Thea Energy, one of several U.S. companies working to commercialize fusion energy, said the company has raised $100 million in Series B funding. Thea is advancing stellarator technology to provide baseload fusion power. The company, which has several investors, is moving toward beginning construction of its Helios power plant (Figure 1) by the […] The post Thea Energy Raises $100 Million in New Funding to Advance Fusion Technology appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Tungsten’s superior performance in extreme environments makes it a leading candidate for plasma-facing components (PFCs) in fusion reactors,

Author(s): S. Karbashewski, E. M. Granstedt, S. Kamio, M. Onofri, T. DeHaas, Y. Fujiwara, R. E. Groenewald, and A. VekslerA new energetic-particle mode exhibits similarities to drift–bounce resonances in Earth’s magnetosphere and has been observed in a field-reversed plasma configuration using the NORM fusion device. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 205101] Published Fri May 22, 2026

Standardizing calculations of the helium byproducts generated in advanced fission and fusion energy system materials can increase reactor safety and longevity, according to a study led by University of Michigan Engineering with collaborators at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and its management contractor UT-Battelle.

This company says its pulsed plasma machine will deliver electricity to the grid by 2029. Some physicists warn that its promises are outrunning what the technology has proved

Jacob John of the UK Atomic Energy Authority is our podcast guest The post Near-oxymoronic requirements: the materials challenges of fusion energy appeared first on Physics World.

In-situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) is our best bet for "living off the land" for a future Martian base, but tracking down those resources is no easy task. As of now, we have two options—send a rover to a specific location to scout it, or monitor it from orbit. Since rovers are expensive, and there are an absolute ton of sites that we would eventually want to scout, doing so from orbit would seem a better option.

In-situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) is our best bet for “living off the land” for a future Martian base, but tracking down those resources is no easy task. As of now, we have two options - send a rover to a specific location to scout it, or monitor it from orbit. Since rovers are expensive, and there are an absolute ton of sites that we would eventually want to scout, doing so from orbit would seem a better option. But monitoring for temperature, one of the most important orbital scans we can do, is notoriously blurry - based in part on the fact that most of the main instruments used to collect data on it are a few decades old. Now, a paper from researchers at Curtin University in Australia presented at the International Astronautical Congress meeting last September uses a fancy AI-like algorithm to improve that thermal resolution, and, as a

The mechanism that can cause a rapidly expanding plasma—the superhot state of matter harnessed in fusion energy systems—to spontaneously generate its own magnetic fields was identified through a new set of simulations. This improves our understanding of naturally occurring plasmas in our universe and advances the development of fusion systems based on an approach called direct-drive inertial fusion.

We're focusing on space news this week, but we did cover the usual amount of local news down here in Earth's gravity well: A new Tokamak reactor regime sustained stable plasma fusion for one full minute. An anomaly in global sea level rise turns out to be due to deep ocean heating. And Chinese researchers report that they found microplastics in every part of both healthy and diseased human brains.