US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announces a major scientific breakthrough from researchers at Nuclear Security and National Nuclear Security Administrations Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Washington, DC, on December 13th, 2022. | Photo by Olivier Douliery / AFP via Getty Images
The Department of Energy is pumping $46 million into eight companies developing nuclear fusion power plants, which has been an elusive clean energy dream for scientists for over half a century. Now, after a big scientific breakthrough in December, the Biden administration aims to achieve “a pilot-scale demonstration of fusion” on an incredibly fast timeline that’s “within a decade.”
The funding announced yesterday is a big bet on what’s considered the “Holy Grail” of clean energy. Generating electricity from nuclear power plants mimics the way stars create their own energy. And while some researchers are optimistic about the timeline Biden’s proposing, many experts say it will likely be several decades before these futuristic power…
