Nuclear Fusion Is Close Enough to Start Dreaming

What They Say

Bloomberg published an interesting article that suggested that nuclear fusion is showing a lot of signs that the technology, which has been ‘promising’ for decades is ‘getting ready for prime time’. It pointed out that a start-up, Helion, has won $500 million in funding to develop its technology to generate net electricity by 2024. It has commitments for another $1.7 billion dependent on reaching certain milestones.

What We Think

It seems to be a quiet day today for display snippets, so I got caught up in other topics. This article was a welcome breath of fresh air among the cloud of depressing news about the planet from the Cop 26 event. The firm thinks that it will be able to provide clean nuclear power at a cost of about 40% of that of natural gas power stations in the US. As the Bloomberg article points out, such cheap clean power would enable very green developments such as desalination to improve the supply of fresh water globally and allowing re-greening of many areas of the earth and much more efficient agriculture. It could also provide power for hydrogen production which might enable the hydrogen economy. That cheered me up.

So that I have a nice positive weekend, I’m not going to think about the promises of cheap safe nuclear power in the post-war years!

Just to bring it back to displays – how much easier it would be to design big bright displays if power was cheap and without a negative environmental impact. And that is probably the key point. Breakthroughs in energy supply or cost radically change whole economies and every industry. (BR)

helion proc