Fusion produces zero greenhouse gas emissions, emitting only helium as exhaust. It also requires less land than other renewable technologies.
Fusion energy is inherently safe, with zero possibility of a meltdown scenario and no long lived waste.
There is enough fusion fuel to power the planet for hundreds of millions of years. A fusion power plant runs on deuterium and tritium, isotopes which can be extracted from seawater and derived from lithium.
Fusion can produce energy on-demand, and is not affected by weather. Because it is also safe and produces no pollution, a fusion power plant can be located close to where it is required.
Fusion power is an energy source the world urgently needs, and General Fusion is pursuing the most practical path to the world’s first commercially-viable fusion power plant.
Fusion powers the sun and the stars, where gravity compresses hydrogen gas to the temperatures required for fusion. The challenge for fusion energy is how to create those conditions on Earth in a controlled way that can be used to provide power. Fusion occurs when atoms are heated to very high temperatures, causing them to collide at high velocity and fuse together. When two light nuclei collide to form a heavier nucleus the process releases a large amount of energy. The most practical fusion reaction uses isotopes of hydrogen named “deuterium” and “tritium”. These can be extracted from seawater and derived from lithium, both in abundant supply. There is enough fusion fuel on earth to power the planet for hundreds of millions of years.
Fusion energy technology has developed a variety of different ways create and maintain the extreme temperatures required for fusion.
The promise of fusion – clean, safe and abundant energy – has made it the focus of research since the 1950s. Recent advances in plasma physics, simulation, electronics and engineering have now brought us closer than ever to making fusion energy a reality.