B.C. company says nuclear fusion energy close after U.S. breakthrough

Nuclear fusion energy has been touted as a key piece in the fight against climate change, and one B.C. company says it’ll be able to deliver this resource within the next decade.

Earlier this week, researchers in the U.S. announced “a major scientific breakthrough” in the decades-long quest to harness fusion — which is energy that powers the sun and the stars.

The scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California for the first time produced more energy in a fusion reaction than was used to ignite it, something called net energy gain, the U.S. Energy Department explained.

Grace Peach with General Fusion, based in Vancouver, says the company has been working for the past two decades to deliver fusion power.

“The time for fusion really is now. We are very confident that we’ll be able to put the zero-carbon energy onto the electricity grid by the early 2030s. It doesn’t have the same waste issues that fission, non-proliferation. It’s a very safe, clean form of energy,” she told CityNews.

“Another thing about our approach that’s really unique is that it’s well-positioned to replace coal-fire generation. Our vision is to replace coal-fire generation all around the world with our machines because the way coal-fire generation creates electricity really compliments our system quite nicely.”

Related article: Fusion breakthrough could be climate, energy game-changer

Peach says the company is in the process of building a fusion demonstration machine in the U.K., which is expected to be operational by 2027. That machine, she explains, can then replace coal-fired power plants around the world.

The demonstration will bring all the various components the company has been working on together, with Peach saying this will show General Fusion’s approach works.

“We’re really confident of that because we’ve already proven all the components that will be brought together.”

Proponents of fusion hope that it could one day produce nearly limitless, carbon-free energy, displacing fossil fuels and other traditional energy sources. Many experts have said that fusion energy-powered homes and businesses is still decades away, but researchers in the U.S. note the most recent breakthrough was a significant step nonetheless.

Net-energy gain has been an elusive goal because fusion happens at such high temperatures and pressures that it is incredibly difficult to control.

Fusion works by pressing hydrogen atoms into each other with such force that they combine into helium, releasing enormous amounts of energy and heat. Unlike other nuclear reactions, it doesn’t create radioactive waste.