The US government is under pressure from the Fusion Energy Industry to provide billions of dollars in support
On Monday, fusion energy industry leaders met U.S. Department of Energy representatives to encourage them to provide billions of dollars to projects that seek to?generate electrical power by the same process as the sun.
In November, the?department?created an Office of Fusion as part of a reorganization which focused on fossil and nuclear energy. Renewable energy offices were eliminated.
The Trump administration has reversed billions in funding that former President Joe Biden authorized for?hydrogen- and renewable energy projects.
Andrew Holland, CEO, Fusion Industry Association said that the leaders urged officials to direct some of this money towards fusion, so that companies can?compete in the race against China.
Holland stated that "now is the time for America to make a substantial investment. This means over one billion dollars in annual appropriations, and an 'infrastructure' investment." Holland said, "If they asked for it, Congress will pass it."
Since decades, companies and national laboratories have tried to encourage fusion reactions by using lasers or large magnetic fields. In this process, light atoms will be forced together in order to release huge amounts of energy.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in California, briefly achieved net gain energy in 2022 in a "fusion experiment" using lasers. It has proven difficult to generate more energy than is needed to ignite a fusion.
The fusion leaders spoke with the officials regarding?Trump?s plan to launch a platform for artificial intelligence called Genesis Mission, which would harness federal scientific data to train next-generation technology they claimed could benefit fusion.
Marvi Matos-Rodriguez, senior vice president for technology at fusion firm Zap Energy, said: "The Energy Department and the Genesis Mission will ensure that the U.S. stays at the forefront by bridging between research and industrialization." (Reporting and editing by Cynthia Osterman; Timothy Gardner)
(source: Reuters)
