Powering Human Progress with Inertial Fusion

 

On the arc of progress, energy has driven almost every major advancement in human civilization. From steam engines to air travel, every leap in progress has come with rising energy use, growing 2–3% annually in the U.S. since the early 1800s—a trend known as the Henry Adams Curve. But since the 1970s, that trajectory stalled as the environmental costs of fossil fuels became clear and alternatives failed to emerge.

The promise of fusion energy—the same process that powers stars—could change this equation entirely. “With fusion, you’re essentially manufacturing energy as opposed to drilling for it,” explains Conner Galloway, CEO and CSO at Xcimer Energy. “The total amount of fuel consumed by a gigawatt-scale fusion plant for a year could be carried in the back of a pickup truck versus many mile-long trains of coal. There’s millennia supply of fusion fuels in the Earth’s crust and oceans, making it the ultimate energy source to propel humanity forward.”

 

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