Nuclear Fusion? Not so Fast

By Goehring & Rozencwajg

On December 13th, 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a nuclear fusion breakthrough. For the first time in history, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory achieved fusion “net energy gain,” releasing more energy than was consumed in the reaction. Immediately, journalists wrote near-utopian articles describing imminent abundant clean energy. Jennifer Granholm, US energy secretary, summed up the excitement: “This milestone moves us one significant step closer to the possibility of zero carbon abundance fusion energy powering our society.”