Fusion

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.

After the encouraging developments from last year and the news from fusion startups receiving funding, a familiar pattern is emerging across energy policy discussions in emerging and developing economies The post Fusion Won’t Replace Energy Policy appeared first on POWER Magazine.

For the first time, a research team has demonstrated, in a metal-wall environment, a plasma regime that simultaneously achieves partial divertor detachment, an edge-localized-mode (ELM)-free high-confinement mode (H-mode), and high pedestal performance. This integrated regime was sustained on a minute scale and the work is published in Physical Review Letters.

The fusion energy start-up Commonwealth aims to bring its first power plant online by the early 2030s, but daunting technical hurdles remain

A U.S.-based fusion energy company has become the first such group to apply to join a major power grid operator. Massachusetts-based Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) on April 28 said it has submitted a connection request to PJM Interconnection, the nation's largest wholesale electricity market, as part of its development plan for a commercial-scale fusion energy power plant. The post Fusion Energy Group Seeks PJM Connection for First Commercial Power Plant appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Scientists at Ames National Laboratory developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool that accelerates discovery of materials needed for next-generation fusion energy systems. The tool, DuctGPT, combines advanced AI with physics-based modeling to help researchers predict materials with the appropriate properties to function in the extreme conditions inside of fusion reactors.

Fusion’s first challenge is scientific: can we make it work at scale? Its second, far tougher test is economic: can we make it cheap enough to matter? Global private investment has passed $10 billion, governments are launching new programs, and regulators are beginning to streamline pathways for advanced fusion machines.​ But one question will determine whether […] The post Fusion Energy: The $50/MWh Target appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Back-to-back events focusing on different forms of nuclear energy reveal sharp differences in mood as well as language taboos, as Margaret Harris reports The post The dirtiest words in fusion and fission appeared first on Physics World.

Fusion power could provide a steady, zero-emissions source of electricity in the future—if companies can get plants built and running. But a new study suggests that even if that future arrives, it might not come cheap. Technologies tend to get less expensive over time. Lithium-ion batteries are now about 90% cheaper than they were in…

Picture two materials sandwiched together. The boundary between them may appear flat, but, in reality, it is full of tiny bumps and dents. Suddenly, the materials are hit with a shockwave. If that wave hits a bump in the material interface, it slows down. If it hits a dent, it accelerates forward. This imbalance creates fast, narrow jets of material—called the Richtmyer-Meshkov (RM) instability.

Scientists have directly observed muonic molecules in resonance states for the first time, using a high-resolution X-ray detector, a new Science Advances study reports.

Tungsten's superior performance in extreme environments makes it a leading candidate for plasma-facing components (PFCs) in fusion reactors, but the ultra-high heat can damage its microscopic structure and lead to component failure. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) can capture and quantify these microstructure changes, but assembling a sufficiently large dataset of SEM imagery is expensive and logistically challenging.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Inertia Enterprises Inc., a commercial fusion energy startup, have entered into a strategic partnership to advance fusion laser technology, as well as inertial fusion target manufacturing and designs. The collaboration, which comes on the heels of Inertia's $450 million fundraising round, is among the largest private sector-led partnerships in the history of the U.S. national lab system. The collaboration expands on Inertia’s R&D capabilities and strong capital position while accelerating its path to commercializing fusion energy. To date, LLNL is home to the only facility in the world to successfully demonstrate fusion energy gain. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory...

Standard fiber optic networks rely on well-established splicing techniques to join glass strands and keep data moving. Conventional

Fusion scientists have solved a long-standing mystery inside tokamaks, the donut-shaped machines designed to harness fusion energy. For years, experiments showed that escaping plasma particles hit one side of the exhaust system far more than the other, but simulations couldn’t explain why. Now, researchers have discovered that the rotation of the plasma itself plays a crucial role—working together with sideways particle drift to create the imbalance.

Korea plans to host a biennial International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conference on fusion energy in Seoul next year, the science ministry said Thursday. The Ministry of Science and ICT inked a Host Government Agreement with the IAEA virtually earlier in the day, naming Korea as the host of the Fusion Energy Conference (FEC) 2027 in Seoul. The 31st FEC, which will run from Oct. 4-9, will bring together government delegations and experts from around 40 countries. Around 1,500 participants are expected to exchange the latest trends in the nuclear fusion energy industry. The ministry said the event will serve as a venue for global exchanges amid the accelerating development of nuclear fusion energy technologies, including commercialization, international collaboration and standard-setting efforts. "The government, research institutions and businesses will thoroughly prepare for the event not only to ensure its successful hosting but to help Korea emerge as a key partner in the global

Artificial intelligence (AI) group OpenAI is reportedly discussing buying electricity from Helion Energy, the fusion startup company based in Everett, Washington. Sources told POWER that a deal would enable OpenAI to be guaranteed part of Helion's power generation, with as much as 5 GW available by 2030 and up to 50 GW by 2035. The post OpenAI in Talks With Helion to Secure Fusion Energy appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Fusion energy startup Focused Energy and the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) have established a $6.9 million partnership to address fundamental challenges in inertial fusion energy (IFE) and accelerate progress toward practical, sustainable fusion power. Conceptual rendering of Focused Energy’s planned Fusion Pilot Plant. Courtesy of Focused Energy. Through the collaboration, LLE will contribute its advanced experimental and modeling capabilities — including the high-bandwidth FLUX laser system — to investigate laser-plasma instabilities (LPI). These instabilities, which include phenomena such as cross-beam energy transfer, stimulated Raman scatter, and two-plasmon decay, can...

In a new study, scientists from the universities of Portsmouth and Manchester report that a specially engineered enzyme can significantly speed up the breakdown of PET—the plastic used in water bottles, food packaging and polyester clothing—when it is processed at high concentrations similar to those used in industry. The findings are published in the journal Bioresource Technology.

Nuclear fusion energy could become commercially viable by the early 2030s as scientists work to replicate the sun's power, potentially transforming energy.

We speak to Rob Akers, director for computing programmes at the UK Atomic Energy Institute, about its new artificial intelligence supercomputer

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.

We speak to UKAEA director for computing programmes, Rob Akers, about the new Sunrise AI supercomputer for nuclear fusion research and development

The AMD Epyc and Instinct-powered Dell hardware will deliver 6.74 exaflops to power digital twins to support nuclear fusion research

A consultancy firm with expertise in radiation safety can help companies developing a new generation of commercial fusion reactors to navigate the regulatory framework The post Licensing puts the power into nuclear fusion appeared first on Physics World.

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are helping to enable the next generation of

Federal Epstein files reveal emails where he claimed to have personally lobbied Congress to defund cold fusion research by electrochemist Stanley Pons in 1989.

To operate fusion systems safely and reliably, scientists need to monitor plasma fuel conditions and measure properties like temperature and density that can affect fusion reactions. Making these measurements will require specialized diagnostic sensors. Against this backdrop, a report sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recommends increased investment in America’s fusion diagnostic capabilities, a critical technology that will provide DOE and Congress with information to speed up the delivery of commercial fusion power plants. The report summarizes findings from 70 researchers who analyzed seven plasma physics topics funded by the DOE’s fusion energy sciences program. The researchers who contributed the...

Fusion energy may be one of the most promising clean power sources of the future—but only if scientists can precisely measure the extreme, fast-moving plasmas that make it possible. A new U.S. Department of Energy–sponsored report urges major investment in advanced diagnostic tools—the high-tech “sensors” that track plasma temperature, density, and behavior inside fusion systems. Bringing together 70 experts from universities, national labs, and private industry, the workshop identified seven priority areas ranging from burning plasma to full-scale pilot plants.

Plasma physicist Debbie Callahan, chief strategy officer at Focused Energy, talks to Hamish Johnston about her work in laser fusion research The post Focusing on fusion: Debbie Callahan talks commercial laser fusion appeared first on Physics World.

To operate fusion systems safely and reliably, scientists need to monitor plasma fuel conditions and measure properties like temperature and density that can affect fusion reactions. Making these measurements requires specialized sensors known as diagnostics.

Author(s): Pavel Aleynikov, Per Helander, and Håkan M. SmithThe concept for future fusion reactors has a key advantage over the tokamak, being practically immune to large-scale disruptions. The authors show, however, that a rapid shutdown of stellarator coil currents (with fast dissipation of poloidal magnetic flux) can nonetheless drive an avalanche of runaway electrons, even without any interruption of the net toroidal plasma current. The problem is far less serious than in a tokamak, but some runaways are inevitably present in an activated fusion device, so an accidental rapid coil ramp-down could produce a dangerous runaway current. Some form of dedicated intervention is likely necessary. [Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 024065] Published Fri Feb 20, 2026

Author(s): Wladimir Zholobenko, Frank Jenko, Kaiyu Zhang, Philipp Ulbl, Konrad Eder, Andreas Stegmeir, Clemente Angioni, and Peter ManzA global, confinement-time-long, flux-driven turbulence simulation of the tokamak plasma edge region subject to a power ramp reproduces an abrupt turbulence transition. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 075101] Published Thu Feb 19, 2026

“Our understanding of instabilities—when they grow, how they grow—is important to making fusion work.”

Scientists have long seen a puzzling pattern in tokamaks, the doughnut-shaped machines that could one day reliably generate electricity from fusing atoms. When plasma particles escape the core of the magnetic fields that hold the plasma in its doughnut shape, they stream down toward the exhaust system, known as the divertor. There, plasma particles strike metal plates, cool down and bounce back. (The returning atoms help fuel the fusion reaction.) But experiments consistently show that far more particles hit the inner divertor target than the outer one.

Livermore company was co-founded by National Ignition Facility research leaders Annie Kritcher and Mike Dunne.

One of the challenges to creating fusion energy is understanding what happens at the smallest scales during fusion reactions. In inertial confinement fusion (ICF), for example, a fuel-filled capsule is bombarded with lasers to create shockwaves and heat and compress the target to kickstart fusion. This process involves many complex interactions that scientists have not been able to observe until now. Dual-probe experiments on laser shockwaves at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) could help unlock the engineering challenges underlying fusion, opening a path to a new source of abundant energy. The research was led by the University of Michigan through the Department of Energy’s...

Harnessing the power of the sun holds the promise of providing future societies with energy abundance. To make this a reality, fusion researchers need to address many technological challenges. For example, fusion reactions occur within a superheated state of matter, called plasma, which can form unstable structures that reduce the efficiency of those reactions.

Inertia Enterprises, a fusion power start-up with ties to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), has secured a $450 million investment to commercialize fusion energy. With the support of its investors and a team purpose-built to deliver grid-scale energy, Inertia will bring to market the only fusion energy approach proven to produce more power than it consumes. Founded in 2024 and unveiled last year, Inertia will build a fusion pilot plant based on the physics proven at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The milestone-based funding will advance Inertia’s plans to build the world’s most powerful laser, Thunderwall, and a production line to mass manufacture...

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) maintains one of the richest and most diverse histories in the federal government. Although the department itself has only existed since 1977, its lineage traces back to the Manhattan Project—the massive scientific effort that developed the atomic bomb during World War II—and to various energy-related programs that were previously […] The post From the Manhattan Project to Fusion: The History of DOE’s National Labs appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The discussion about nuclear fusion has long involved its potential to create limitless amounts of energy. Thea Energy is one of several companies working to turn that potential into reality. The post The POWER Interview: Thea Energy’s Fusion Architecture appeared first on POWER Magazine.