Zap Energy and Helion Energy, both in Everett, Washington, are generating energy via nuclear fusion. These smaller, private companies -- unlike the large public/private megaprojects developing reactors elsewhere in the US, in France, and more -- are building miniature versions but large enough to "reliably produce enough power for 30,000 homes—day and night, year-round". That's impressive.
Maybe it's an age thing and the fact that the word "nuclear" still gives me anxiety, but I do get nervous thinking about the potential dangers of nuclear energy. We've seen it in the US, in Russia, in Japan. Are we really to the point where the rewards outweigh the risk? According to this story (and the investments around the world) we just might be.
A sleepy strip mall beside Boeing’s sprawling campus in Everett, WA isn’t necessarily where you’d expect to find technology promising to harness the power of the sun, release humanity from the grip of fossil fuels, and unlock an estimated US $40 trillion market. But here, and in an even more anonymous office park nearby, startup Zap Energy is trialing a prototype reactor that is already producing high-energy neutrons from nuclear fusion—if not yet enough to send power back into the grid.
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