Breakthrough Science Primer: Fusion Energy
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility achieved one of the most important milestones in the development of abundant clean energy last week by producing a fusion reaction that generated more energy than it consumed.
Prime Movers Lab is excited to be backing two groundbreaking fusion startups: Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Focused Energy. Focused Energy is advancing the same inertial confinement (laser-based) approach as NIF and is now developing even more effective and efficient lasers than those at Livermore. In fact, many of the scientists who helped pave the way for the breakthrough at Livermore now work for Focused Energy in Darmstadt, Germany or Austin, Texas, including Senior Scientist Debbie Callahan, Scientific Director Pravesh Patel, and Board Member Bill Goldstein, who was Director of Lawrence Livermore National Labs.
To help you better understand the importance of this breakthrough as well as the key differences between approaches, we’ve put together some of our thought leadership on fusion, including white papers, webinars, and blogs to help you understand why we think this technology is so critical to mankind.
- White Paper: Nuclear Fusion
- Webinar: Fusion Energy
- Breakthrough Science Roadmap Prediction: A fusion company achieves net energy gain by 2029
- Breakthrough Science Roadmap Prediction: First commercial fusion power plant by 2039
- Blog: Why We Invested in Focused Energy
- Blog: What Will It Take To Build A US Fusion Industry?
- Blog: Fusion with Lasers (Nuclear Fusion Part 2: Inertial Confinement Fusion Technology)
- Blog: Tokamaks and Donuts (Nuclear Fusion Part 3: Magnetic Confinement Fusion Technology
- Blog: Fusion and Your Future Electric Bill (Nuclear Fusion Part 4: Cost Assessment)
- Blog: Fantasy Fusion (With the uncertainty around professional sports, here is a high-tech alternative.)
Prime Movers Lab invests in breakthrough scientific startups founded by Prime Movers, the inventors who transform billions of lives. We invest in companies reinventing energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, human augmentation, and agriculture.
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