Green steel… The US’s largest steelmaker is pluggin’ in to fusion power. This week, Nucor struck a deal with startup Helion Energy to build a 500-megawatt fusion powerplant at one of its mills. Nucor’s steel is used in everything from ovens to skyscrapers, but requires lots of energy to produce. That’s why it’s hoping to harness nuclear fusion (joining atoms), which releases 4M times as much energy as burning fossil fuels.
Steel yourself: The steel industry makes up 7% of the world’s carbon emissions, but using fusion power could significantly reduce that because it doesn’t release emissions. Nuclear-power plants produce electricity from fission (splitting atoms), which is considered nonrenewable.
Mending metal: While fusion is much harder to produce, Nucor’s new plant could generate enough electricity to power hundreds of thousands of homes, and reduce its emissions by 500K metric tons.
Ignition ambitions… Investment in fusion power has surged since scientists made a major breakthrough last year: using a nuclear-fusion reaction to create "net energy gain" for the first time. Fusion funding has nearly 3X’d since 2021, hitting $6B. In May, Microsoft signed for Helion Energy to supply it with electricity. And Google and Chevron participated in a $250M raise last year for Japanese fusion startup TAE.
The US Department of Energy is giving $46M to eight companies working on fusion power plants to supercharge the tech’s development.
Fusing forces can fuel progress… By some estimates, fusion energy wasn't expected on the grid for decades. But surging funding and big-name backers could speed up the timeline. At least four companies now predict they’ll be able to deliver fusion power to the grid by 2030. The Biden admin hopes there’ll be some pilot demos of the tech by then.