Recent news reports suggest that fusion energy is close to a technological breakthrough. The National Ignition Facility in the US is reportedly on the verge of achieving a longstanding goal in nuclear fusion research which is to generate more energy than what is consumed. A pioneering reactor in Britain is gearing up to start pivotal tests of a fuel mix that will eventually power ITER, (International thermonuclear experimental reactor or “the way” in Latin), the world’s biggest nuclear-fusion experiment. ITER is a well-funded collaboration of 35 national governments (including India) designed to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy. Fusion has long remained the domain of government research and international collaborations, but now private investors are getting serious about nuclear fusion. 24 private-sector fusion companies in North America and Europe attracted US $300 million in investment in 2020, about 20 percent of their historical total, according to Bloomberg. Though most of the private initiatives are not close to commercial operations, some of them believe that they will break key technological barriers in fusion reactions in the next five to ten years.
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