A new international partnership between a U.S. fusion company and the United Kingdom's national fusion lab could help bring one of the cleanest forms of energy closer to reality.
TAE Technologies announced via a press release that it is launching a joint venture with the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), a new fusion technology center based at the Culham Campus in Oxfordshire, England.
The team will focus on developing advanced neutral beam systems, which are essential for making fusion reactors work by stabilizing and heating super-hot plasma so it can generate power.
The UKAEA announced plans for a 5.6 million pound investment into the joint project with the American company formerly known as Tri Alpha Energy, based in Foothill Ranch, California.
Fusion energy works by combining atoms to release massive amounts of heat that can be converted into electricity. Unlike coal, oil, or gas, fusion doesn't involve burning fuel or producing carbon pollution during operation. It also produces far less long-lasting radioactive waste than traditional nuclear power plants.
Fusion is expected to play a crucial role in the clean energy transition. While solar, wind, and hydro already supply millions of homes with cleaner energy, fusion could eventually provide a reliable source of power — and jobs — that complements renewables and lowers energy costs further.
But nuclear fusion is expensive to develop and requires major infrastructure and engineering investment throughout the process, as we see with this partnership. However, unlike dirty energy, fusion's long-term environmental and planet-heating impact would be significantly smaller if successful.
"We're building critical infrastructure for the fusion supply chain," said TAE CEO Michl Binderbauer in a press release. "Ensuring that the US-UK partnership can together remain central to the fusion economy of the future."
Beyond fusion, TAE has adapted the neutral beam system for TAE Life Sciences to provide targeted cancer therapies, offering new treatment options for patients while proving fusion research can have an impact beyond energy.
In a press release, lieutenant governor Eleni Kounalakis of California called the international partnership a "powerful example of what global collaboration can achieve" and noted that it advances a "cleaner, more sustainable future for us all."
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