Thanks to a partnership between Colorado State University and private laser energy company Marvel Fusion, the road to fusion power is getting a $150 million grant. announced on mondayThe new facility will be located on the CSU Foothills campus and will focus on “clean fusion energy, microelectronics, optics and photonics, materials science, medical imaging, and high energy density science.”
according to Marvel Fusion August 7 Statement, the development of laser fusion is “very important because it can dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of the way energy is delivered around the world.” Fusion has long been considered the holy grail of clean energy generation. It has been taken. The resources required are virtually limitless and produce far greater amounts of energy compared to other environmentally friendly energy alternatives. Unlike the fission reactions found in conventional nuclear power plants, nuclear fusion forces atoms to join together within extremely high temperatures to produce new atoms of lower mass.
[Related: In 5 seconds, this fusion reactor made enough energy to power a home for a day.]
“This is an exciting opportunity for laser-based science and a dream facility for discoveries and advanced technology development with the potential to have a major impact on society,” said Jorge, Director of the CSU Advanced Lasers and Extreme Photonics Laboratory. Rocca said. News of the week.
The CSU and Marvel fusion projects are aiming to start operations in 2026, but it could be many more years before fusion energy becomes affordable and can be produced at scale.Some experts estimate that it will take time decades To achieve the goal, even so.
Still, researchers are making great strides towards sustainable fusion energy. For example, in 2021 a British team generated a record-breaking 59 megajoules of energy in just 5 seconds with fusion technology. This is enough to power a home for a full day. Earlier this year, the US government also gave out a number of grants aimed at reinvigorating cold fusion research.
[Related: Cold fusion is making a scientific comeback.]
The overall prospects are so attractive that leading companies are investing heavily in fusion research. Earlier this year, Microsoft announced a power purchase agreement with Helion, a startup aiming to achieve sustainable convergence by 2028. As ambitious as that may sound, Helion’s aspirations have attracted the attention of other investors. Among them he is OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. $375 million To the company in 2021.
Alongside the new partnership project, Marvel Fusion will working towards Building a prototype consisting of hundreds of laser systems that “can achieve fusion ignition and prove the technology at scale.”
