Die USA brauchen eine nationale Fusionsstrategie, bevor unser Vorsprung im Energiebereich schwindet
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2026-02-03/u-s-national-fusion-strategy
Die USA brauchen eine nationale Fusionsstrategie, bevor unser Vorsprung im Energiebereich schwindet
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2026-02-03/u-s-national-fusion-strategy
7 Kommentare
From the article
We are in the middle of a long-term geopolitical race: China, Europe and the U.K. have been pouring billions into fusion development. If the U.S. wants fusion energy to power our economy in the next decades and beyond, now is the time to double down.
For more than 75 years, humans have sought to harness the power of fusion — the energy source for the sun and all other stars in the universe. Yet it’s only in the last few years that U.S. researchers at California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have achieved the holy grail of ignition, when controlled fusion reactions can produce more energy than that supplied. This discovery, along with the development of high-temperature super conducting magnets, has led to a surge in private investments, with fusion start-ups raising four times more capital ($7.1 billion) in the last four years than ever raised before, according to [data from the Fusion Industry Assn](https://www.fusionindustryassociation.org/over-2-5-billion-invested-in-fusion-industry-in-past-year/).
U.S. fusion companies and national laboratories have led the funding and have made the most scientific progress to date. It now feels as though the U.S. is closer than ever to commercialization due to breakthroughs like superconducting magnets, high-powered lasers, efficient pulsed power machines and the use of AI in materials and plasma physics.
But isolated breakthroughs alone won’t win the global race. Strategy will. The question now is whether the U.S. will use this moment to build and fund a coherent national plan for fusion energy or watch other nations reap the economic and strategic rewards of a technology American scientists did so much to advance over the last few decades.
Fusion is yesterday’s vision of the future. It’s never going to be cheaper than solar and batteries. The only advantage it has is a relatively small footprint. Cool for spaceships and normal ships.
At end of the day, it’s another heat source and will still need the usual cooling towers and turbines, and we aren’t bringing the cost of all that concrete down.
I was obsessed growing up, but even if they get the science down and I hope they do, the economics make less and less sense. Solar is just too good.
Haven’t you heard? The US is going to be the world leader in coal.
Lead? Ever heard of that thing called ITER that some countries have been building since forever?
We have a president who is currently pushing a „Coalie“ mascot on us to promote how great „clean coal“ is, despite how its been declining year after year.
Our „lead“ is already lost.
Renewables are the winning strategy in energy. The US has opted out of playing.
Fusion is not a serious contender for energy production right now. It’s a compelling research project.
If the US was interested in being competitive in energy we’d focus on solar energy and fission, which are already perfectly viable performant options.
This is just regulatory capture by oil & gas. Focus attention on moonshots that are unlikely to work as a baseline power supply to deflect from solutions that actually work.. like solar panels.