The Future of Power

Nuclear fusion is one of the most fascinating scientific goals in modern times. It is the same physical process that powers both the sun and stars. Scientists across the world are exploring how to harness fusion on Earth as it could provide humanity with an inexhaustible and clean source of energy. If fusion is harnessed, then energy consumption across the world could be changed forever.

What Is Nuclear Fusion

Nuclear Fusion is the process that occurs when two light atoms combine to create heavier ones. The majority of research in nuclear fusion examines two isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium. The reaction occurs when deuterium and tritium are used, producing helium and a large amount of energy. This energy released is due to a small amount of its mass being transferred into energy.

Fusion occurs in stars due to extreme heat and pressure, and to create fusion on Earth, we need to reach temperatures above 100 million degrees Celsius. This temperature is where hydrogen changes into plasma, a stage of matter which consists of charged particles. The greatest difficulties in studying fusion are the safety and stabilisation of plasma and fusion energy.

Importance of Nuclear Fusion

Clean, dependable energy is needed for our global civilisation. We still generate the majority of electricity through burning coal, oil, and gas, which produces CO2, impacting the climate. Renewable sources such as wind and solar are improving, but they depend on weather variability, which can lead to unreliability. Nuclear fusion is understood as an energy source that doesn’t emit greenhouse gas and is considered to be a long-term source of low-carbon electricity that helps halt climate change (Mohamed, 2024).

Fusion energy produces neither greenhouse gases nor smoke nor long-lived radioactive waste. It is known to be very safe: even if something goes wrong in a reactor, multiple automatic safety systems called failsafes stop the process. Fusion reactions cannot explode or melt down. The main fuel—deuterium and tritium—are types of hydrogen. Deuterium can be extracted from water, and tritium can be made from lithium, a common element in the Earth’s crust. These fuels are accessible in many places worldwide.

If fusion could be harnessed at scale, then every country would have energy independence, dramatically dropping the price and necessary for other sources of power unnecessary. This is the most clean which minimises climate change. This provides energy at a lower cost and variability, making it very reliable for us.

Scientific Progression

Researchers use two methods to achieve fusion on Earth. The first method is magnetic confinement, which uses a strong magnet to hold plasma in a doughnut-shaped vessel known as a tokamak. Stored in a doughnut shape, one set of magnetic coils generates an interesting toroidal field, where the twisted magnetic fields confine the particles in the plasma (Wan and Xu, 2023). This comes to shows that scientists are building never-before-seen technology and physics calculations to build this concept. As time progresses, more projects occur, where the largest of these projects is the ITER, which is under construction in France with 30+ countries help building it.

The second method of fusion is inertial confinement. This method utilises lasers to heat and compress a small fuel pellet until it achieves fusion. With intense laser beams, achieving ignition means that we get more energy out of a fusion target than the laser energy into it (Batani, 2024). As these laser beams are used, it shows that the amount of energy and heat released can be as hot as the core of the sun, but if the energy we get out of the fusion target is more than the amount emitted from the laser beam. It comes to show how vital this concept is for humanity.

Investments

Private companies are speeding up fusion research. Companies such as Helion Energy, TAE Technologies, and Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) are developing smaller and efficient machines. New computer models and artificial intelligence make plasma easier to control.

Helion Energy is designing a reactor that directly turns fusion energy into electricity without turbines. These approaches are drawing large investments, which makes scientists confident that fusion will be ready in a decade or two.

Major tech company research labs are investing heavily in nuclear fusion. With technological progress, we are approaching the era of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), which refers to AI that can perform any intellectual task a human can. AGI systems could run continuously, but this creates a huge need for sustainable energy. Fossil fuels and renewables may not reliably supply this need. Recently, Google DeepMind, a leading AI research organisation, invested large amounts into fusion reactors. Google also invested in CFS to help move fusion technology toward practical use (Battaglia, 2025). The involvement of trillion-dollar companies like Google highlights fusion’s potential to transform the world.

Future

If fusion is achieved, it will change modern life in many ways. Fusion provides endless power, which is not reliant on fuel imports or weather. It creates new industries and jobs both in science and engineering. Fusion space travel and other industries that require massive amounts of energy can be sustained through continuous power.

Fusion has the potential to create hope for billions of people who do not have access to electricity. Clean energy from fusion enables countries to power cities, farms, and schools without harming the environment.  

Citations

Batani, Dimitri. “Inertial confinement fusion: Recent results and perspectives.” EPJ, 06 November 2024, https://www.epj-conferences.org/articles/epjconf/abs/2024/20/epjconf_lnes2024_00013/epjconf_lnes2024_00013.html.

Battaglia, Devon. “Google DeepMind is bringing AI to the next generation of fusion energy.” Google DeepMind, 16 October 2025, https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/bringing-ai-to-the-next-generation-of-fusion-energy/.

Mohamed, Mustakimah, et al. “Global Development and Readiness of Nuclear Fusion Technology as the Alternative Source for Clean Energy Supply.” MDPI, 13 May 2024, https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/10/4089.

Wan, Baonian, and Guosheng Xu. “Steady-state burning plasma: a new stage in the development of magnetic confinement fusion energy.” National Science Review, 14 August 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwad217.