 EMC2 Fusion Development Corp. |
Plasma shines brightly inside EMC2 Fusion’s WB-7 device, which was built to validate earlier experiments in inertial electrostatic confinement fusion. |
There’s more than one way to do fusion energy research: Some approaches rely on applying well-accepted physics, at a cost of billions of dollars, on a timeline that could stretch out for decades. Other approaches follows unconventional paths that could get to the goal much more quickly, for much less money … but could also lead to dead ends.
Over the past couple of weeks, the folks following unconventional paths to fusion have signaled that they’re a little surer about their progress – while some of the folks following the mainstream path are running into a little more trouble.
Does that mean low-budget fusion will prevail? Not necessarily. But it does mean that fusion research could heat up in the years to come.
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