Fusion Funding

Fossil Fuels Still Dominate

Written by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. Mainstream media loves to feature stories of the newest green energy initiative. Rightly so as humanity tries to cope with climate change. Each new initiative and milestone creates additional hope for the future. However, more balanced reporting may indicate we need even more progress. A National Observer article by Barry Saxifrage gives a more sober perspective. His article published last summer indicates fossil fuels still dominate globally. Mr. Saxifrage started with the well regarded “BP Statistical Review of World Energy.” Despite copious amounts of data contained in the report, it didn’t answer one simple question: how much fossil fuel is the world burning each year? So Mr. Saxifrage downloaded all the data […]

U.S. Ups Funding For Fusion

Written by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. Late last week the final 2018 budget was passed by the United States Congress. While delayed six months, this budget contains significant increases for programs backed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). DOE’s basic research wing, the Office of Science, gets a 16% boost, to $6.26 billion, in a 2018 omnibus spending bill passed by Congress last week. In contrast, last May President Donald Trump’s administration had proposed a 17% cut. The Office of Science oversees six programs, and fusion energy sciences saw one of the largest increases. Fusion research funding will increase 24% to $410 million. This compares to $331 million distributed to fusion programs under the 2017 budget. It’s […]

The Real MIT Fusion Announcement

Written by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. This past week many mainstream media outlets devoted coverage to an announcement of a fusion research project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The MIT announcement highlighted an effort to develop a compact tokamak fusion reactor. The headline grabbing news was the prediction that this would yield electricity to the grid in 15 years. Much of this coverage positioned the announcement as possible due to some new novel scientific break-though. Let’s take a closer look. The tokamak device proposed by MIT is essentially the same design proposed by Russian scientists nearly 70 years ago. Tokamaks, invented in the 1950s by Soviet physicists Igor Tamm and Andrei Sakharov, grew from an original […]

Fusion Funding Cuts

Written by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. A few weeks ago President Trump released his proposed budget for fiscal year 2019. This proposal carries cuts to many scientific programs. Programs under threat include several fusion research efforts. Cuts might delay ITER construction funding. Yet, smaller programs could feel the impact most. The University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE), which houses one of the most powerful lasers in the US, has slammed what it calls “potentially devastating” budget cuts threatened by the Trump administration’s budget request for fiscal year 2019. University interim president designate Richard Feldman defending LLE released the following statement: The University was disappointed to learn that the Administration’s fiscal year 2019 budget proposes a significant […]

Let There Be Light

Written by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. Fusion fans have the opportunity to give themselves a most welcome gift this holiday season. Amazon Video recently began carrying a fusion documentary called Let There Be Light. Principally filmed in 2015, it presents the state of the ITER project at that time. However, throughout the movie alternative approaches to fusion are presented. Researchers from General Fusion, LPPFusion and Wendelstein 7-X are covered. Directed by Canadian filmmakers Mila Aung-Thwin and Van Royko, the documentary highlights the hurdles to fusion-based power generation. By examining the challenges before ITER, the filmmakers illuminate the complexity of the problem, the costs required and the significant project time scales that result. The difficulties plaguing ITER; funding, international […]

Problems With Fusion

Written by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. Fusion has problems. Chief among them is that we haven’t been able to make it work efficiently here on earth despite over sixty years of research. But fusion also has broader problems. Inadequate funding, difficulty communicating, unequal funding, long development times, uncertain outcomes and over-hyped prospects haunt fusion to this day. Yet the possibility of fusion power is pursued ardently all over the world. That’s because the potential of fusion power can’t be overstated. This potential translates into some of it’s problems. Fusion is hard. Trying to coerce fundamental forces of nature to follow our bidding has proven exceptionally challenging. Lifetimes have been spent to gain only incremental improvements. The monumental difficulty […]

Hurdles to Fusion

Written by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. A Quora post from earlier this year is gaining visibility on social media platforms. The post asks and tries to answer what has been keeping us from making a viable fusion reactor. It cites a half dozen barriers that have proven difficult to overcome. Three can be grouped as communication issues, with the other three as funding issues. The communication issues cover public ignorance, poor communication from the scientific community and over hyped claims. People are generally unaware of fusion power, its potential and of current research efforts. It’s not a topic that garners mainstream media attention. Most folks don’t seek out such news. The lack of accessible communication from the fusion […]