Fusion power might be 30 years away but we will reap its benefits well before | Discoveries made in pursuit of nuclear fusion have potentially huge practical applications in everything from curing cancer to superior batteries for EVs

From the article: When James Watt’s first commercial steam engine was installed in March 1776 at Bloomfield Colliery, Tipton in the West Midlands, it was hailed as a mechanical marvel. Yet few could have anticipated the way steam engines would change the world.

Developed initially to pump water from mines, the technology was adapted across so many industries and applications that it sparked the Industrial Revolution. Now, according to those working on the development of fusion energy power plants, we are on the cusp of a similar transformation. “I see this whole endeavour as having the characteristics of a general purpose technology in the same spirit as Watt,” says Lu-Fong Chua, chief strategy officer of TAE Power Solutions in Birmingham.

Fusion is the energy-generating mechanism that makes the stars shine. The cliche is that human-engineered fusion on Earth is always “30 years away”. But if we can make it work, it promises such quantities of clean energy that we will finally be able to leave fossil fuels behind.

Large, state-sponsored efforts and, increasingly, private startups are reporting breakthroughs that many in the industry now think will lead to viable fusion energy. Underlining their optimism, in 2022 the UK government announced the site for the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) project, at West Burton in Nottinghamshire. This demonstration plant aims to supply electricity into the national grid by the 2040s. And in developing such fusion power plants, we are creating new technologies and solutions that can reach far beyond the task of energy generation.

Fusion power has been 30 years away ever since we got the idea