Fusion Power: The Burning Issue

The Department of Energy is gambling on the wrong fusion approach and may needlessly burn up billions in taxpayer dollars in the process.

Fusion power research is at a crossroads. Continuing along the current path will almost certainly lead to major disappointment for one of the few long-term energy sources potentially available. After roughly 50 years of research, the Department of Energy is seriously considering moving ahead with a burning plasma experiment that for the first time would demonstrate the large-scale production of fusion.¹ The leading proposal is the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). ITER has been in design for more than a decade by a team composed of technologists from the United States, Europe, Japan, and Russia. To build and bring ITER into operation would cost an estimated $5 billion to $10 billion and take roughly 10 years.

Although the goal of demonstrating the large-scale production of fusion power is laudable, there are compelling reasons to believe that the leading concept-the tokamak approach-will not be viable as a commercial electric power system.^2,3 That being the case, the burning issue is whether the investment of time, money, and people, and the diversion from more promising paths, is justified.

The following highlights some of the fundamental physics, engineering, and market realities that together show why the tokamak concept is a commercial dead-end.