Fusion Energy Could Deliver Power in 8 Years, DOE Chief Says – “Commercial electricity from fusion energy could be as fast as eight years, and I’d be very surprised if it’s more than 15.”
https://www.ttnews.com/articles/fusion-energy-8-years
Fusion Energy Could Deliver Power in 8 Years, DOE Chief Says – “Commercial electricity from fusion energy could be as fast as eight years, and I’d be very surprised if it’s more than 15.”
https://www.ttnews.com/articles/fusion-energy-8-years
31 Comments
From the article
Harnessing fusion energy for electricity is possible in the next decade, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Bloomberg Television.
“I believe we will know the commercial pathway to fusion during the Trump administration,” Wright said, echoing comments he’s made previously. “Commercial electricity from fusion energy could be as fast as eight years, and I’d be very surprised if it’s more than 15.”
Fusion energy, which powers the sun and stars, has the potential to produce abundant carbon-free electricity, but efforts to harness it have proved elusive. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced in 2022 they were able to produce a fusion reaction that generated more energy than it consumed for the first time.
Remind me 25 years, “how far away is fusion powered electricity this year?”
A corrupt stooge who works for a compulsive liar sold the desperately credulous the most popular pipe-dream of the last half-century.
Fortunately for him in 15 years when it hasn’t happened he can say he was just talking about solar power
[Construction of world’s 1st nuclear fusion plant starts in Washington](https://interestingengineering.com/energy/world-first-fusion-power-plant-helion)
Thats exactly what I personally would say if I knew it was 25 or more years away (vis a vis.. “I’ll be retired so whatever”)
Meanwhile China is facilitating long reactions. They’re going to have it first.
Dunno the DOE Chief, but if he’s the same calibre as the heads of DOJ, FBI, HHS or DNI then I suspect this may not be strictly true…
Listening to this guy is the equivalent of that friend who insists that he’s done his research but you lived with him for 4 years and he just smoked weed and huffed glue every day.
If only there was a massive fusion generator in the sky we could harvest energy from with photovoltaic cells.
The same guy that thinks wind and solar are worthless?
So americans are promoting technology that has been 60 years in development and still only theoretically working, so they could axe the renewables and still end up using fossil fuels.
So then why are they sabotaging EV’s and removing charging stations ?
Until we can harness fusion for propulsion, we are essentially stuck to this rock as a species.
I worked in fusion and my partner still works in fusion. 15 years would be really difficult. There are still some pretty big engineering hurdles. Also, achieves sustained fusion would be the benchmark. There is no commercial viability in that time frame.
Just like Elon’s “FSD will be here next year” since like 2012.
It all depends on how much is spent to build new test reactors. Theoretical we have come a long way, but practical testing is necessary to get them further. We could have working fusion reactors pretty soon, if not for all the bullshit that money is being spent on. Cutting science budgets is not going to get us there.
I don’t believe much the DoE has to say anymore after their comment about wind and solar energy. This is one of those things I choose not to believe.
Wasn’t he saying a few months ago that fusion power was five years away and now it’s 8 but no more than 15 years away?
Can these folks just please stop talking. If you want progress, invest in the technologies.
More stock market manipulation?
I’ll believe it when my power bill is cheaper.
Crypto currencies, Ai, Fusion Energy, shooting missiles at UFOs = exciting times. Invest in popcorn 🍿
Yeah even if it’s true, almost all of the power will be given to Big Tech so they can enjoy more cheap power for data centers or whatever project they need to unleash on the public next.
The rest of us? Enjoy your 25% increase to cover the funds to make this happen.
>”We are confidently on the path to building a fully functional industrial scale fusion generating station within eight years.”
Ezekiel Kugat, research director, Argentinian Fusion Reactor Project, 1951…(that’s not his actual name, but close enough).
Would be nice but as FPL showed me it doesn’t matter how much extra energy we produce the government will allow big companies to use it for profit and then up my power bill in return.
Okay, let me guess: until then it’s better to keep investing in Fossil Fuels because “the infrastructure is already there”
Same old argument. Neither Fusion nor Fission are the point here. It’s just a ploy to justify stifling renewables and further relying on oil, gas and coal…
It’s an improvement on the “10 years away” that we’ve been getting for decades.
I’ve been seeing this headline for the past 30 years
I heard fusion power and Half Life 3 are going to be released at the same time.
Consider most public works project takes 5 years just to plan and another 5 years to build, I hope they started 2 years ago.
Did he misinterpret what the active fusion reactor research projects are doing? The ITER isn’t finished and others are only on paper I think. The big issue is getting the damn thing to produce more power than required to get it running.
Isn’t that what’s being said since like 40 years ago?