Arizona targets fusion energy market as Trump administration makes it top priority

Fusion. It’s a subject that has captured not only my attention but that of many others.

OK, I sense some readers of this column may have just felt their eyes glaze over. Let me try a different approach to get you back.

To do that, I’m turning to Tomás Díaz de la Rubia, senior vice-president for research and partnerships at the University of Arizona who also is a member of the Arizona Technology Council board of directors.

He recently offered testimony to the Arizona House Science and Technology Committee about the importance of fusion and its significance in meeting the growing demand for energy to power the world. The quotes that follow are his words spoken that day.

Tomás, as I know him, opened his presentation by describing himself as “a scientist who has spent a lifetime pursuing the dream of clean, sustainable energy for the planet.” (Is that cool or what?)

Then he began by answering the obvious question for many. “Fusion is the energy that powers the stars. When you look up into the sky and you see the light from distant stars, that light is produced by fusion reactions. In the core of a star, hydrogen nuclei fuse together, overcoming the Coulomb repulsion between positively charged particles at extremely high temperatures and pressures. When those nuclei combine, they form heavier elements and release tremendous amounts of energy—more energy than was required to initiate the reaction. It truly is the magic of science.”

Tomás shared a significant moment that occurred three years ago at a place where he worked for two dozen years. “There was an event that happened at a government laboratory in California called Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. It was a quest that humanity has had for about 70 years to demonstrate that one could achieve a controlled fusion reaction in the laboratory.

“If we can reproduce what happened in that laboratory in a controlled experiment into the market, we will transform the planet forever. We will move from a world of energy scarcity, where we’re always worried about energy is going to come from, to a world of energy abundance.”

Fusion energy markets worth ‘multitrillions of dollars’

This is where we come in. “The energy markets for fusion over the decades to come, the next three to four decades, is multitrillions of dollars. So President (Suresh) Garimella and I, when we started as the new team at the University of Arizona, we looked at the question of energy and we looked at the question of where is it going to come from. And we decided that it would be important for us as a university to focus on something that is truly transformative for the planet. Difficult.”

But not impossible.

“It’s very hard to get from experiments in a laboratory to electrons on the grid in the commercial markets but worthy of the University of Arizona and the state of Arizona. We think that there’s a path forward to bring the fusion energy industry of the future and build that industry here in the state of Arizona.

“We are working closely with the private sector. We’re working closely with the federal government and we’re working towards building that infrastructure—the supply chains, the talent chains and the technologies—that are necessary to commercialize fusion here in the United States before China and here in Arizona before anywhere else.”

Tomás emphasized that goal is supported at a level beyond just our state. “The Trump administration has made fusion one of their top priorities. They have set up at the Department of Energy a new Office of Fusion Energy to help create public private partnerships to advance and commercialize fusion energy going into the future.”

Fusion: Ultimate clean energy solution

In addition to Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, Tomás said U of A already is partnering with fellow Council member Leonardo Electronics. With a facility in Tucson, the company makes powerful laser parts used in fusion research, especially the type that uses strong lasers to squeeze tiny fuel pellets in a bid to create fusion energy.

“So as I said, fusion is the ultimate clean energy solution. Ultimately, a clean sustainable base load energy source that is able to give us not only electrons on the grid but also process heat to desalinate water, for example. (It) will be completely transformative to who we are and where we need to be in the future. So that’s our, effort. That’s what we’re focused on at the university. That’s the promise of fusion.”

“With the tremendous support that we have from the state, from the Board of Regents, through the Technology and Research Initiative Fund, and from our partners and alumni, we can really be the center of the United States when it comes to pushing forward this idea of taking fusion energy and putting it on the market within the next decade or so.”

Now, are you excited? I know I am!