Are We On The Brink Of A Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough?

Short Wave

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4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2024

⏱️ 15 minutes

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Summary

Nuclear fusion could one day change the world by producing energy at lower costs than we generate it now — without greenhouse gas emissions or long-term nuclear waste.

If we can get it to work.

People have been promising nuclear fusion as a new, clean source of power for decades without much tangible success. But lately, billions of dollars from venture capitalists and tech entrepreneurs have flowed into the field. Science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel shares his reporting on some of the companies racing towards what could be the world's first commercial fusion power plants.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from NPR sponsor HubSpot.
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0:16.0	You're listening to Shortwave
0:18.0	from NPR.
0:21.0	Hey Shortwavers
0:22.0	Regina Barbara here with Science Correspondent Jeff Bremer, hey Jeff!
0:25.8	Hi Gina, how are you?
0:27.4	I'm doing pretty good. I'm super excited because we're going to be talking about
0:29.9	fusion. Let's get straight into it. I'm going to start with a joke. Have you heard the classic joke about nuclear fusion energy?
0:38.0	No, I'm hesitant, but go ahead, tell me the joke. The joke is, Fusion Energy is the power of the future, and it always will be.
0:46.7	I don't get it.
0:47.7	Ah!
0:48.7	Well, because it turns out that people have been promising this brand new source of power
0:55.8	That's going to solve all the world's problems for 50 years.
0:59.8	And yet it never seems to quite work out.
1:03.2	When I was an undergrad, it was still being promised.
1:05.8	You're right.
1:06.8	But that may be about to change because at the moment there's a lot of investment
1:09.5	actually flowing into the idea of building a commercial fusion power reactor and the payoff could be huge.
1:16.1	We can generate electricity at theoretically much lower costs than we currently can generate it now
	...

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