US advised to ‘aggressively’ back fusion energy

Two reports call for use of industry partnerships to deploy fusion energy technologies

The United States should “move aggressively towards the deployment of fusion energy”, experts have advised, as two reports recommended it should use public-private collaborations to build a fusion power plant by the 2040s.

Currently, nuclear power is generated by splitting the nuclei of atoms. Combining nuclei generates much more energy and is seen as a potentially abundant source of clean power, but the process is harder to control and has never been demonstrated as a viable energy source.