![]() Meanwhile, the first reactor that should achieve “burn”-that is, self-sustaining fusion-is currently under construction in France, with operations set to begin within the next few years (Figure 1). and other nations, most of the key physics questions behind fusion have been answered. As the result of decades of scientific advancement by the U.S. Yet that reality is considerably closer than many people realize. Practical, economic generation from fusion is not yet here, and it’s a solid bet that it will not arrive on the grid before the 2030s. This photo shows the partly completed building that will house the fusion tokamak and its support systems. The ITER project, shown during construction in February 2020, will be the first experiment to create a “burning,” or self-sustaining, fusion plasma. Decades of overly enthusiastic predictions have led to a long-running joke that fusion is the energy source of the future-and always will be.ġ. Vastly more is understood about the physics of fusion energy than in Eddington’s day, yet commercial electricity generation from fusion still remains a goal rather than a reality. Obviously, these early predictions were more than a little off-base. ![]() It was not long before journalists and pulp fiction authors were predicting a time, surely not far away, when the world would be powered by simple fusion reactors requiring nothing more than abundant hydrogen from water. When British physicist Arthur Stanley Eddington first proposed in the 1920s that the sun and stars were powered by the fusion of hydrogen into helium, his idea sparked a rush of research and speculation into the possibility of bringing this energy source to earth. But significant recent advances in fusion science and technology could potentially put the first fusion power on the grid as soon as the 2040s. The joke about fusion energy is that it’s 30 years away and always will be.
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