$7B Supply Chain For First Fusion Plants

A survey released on Wednesday said that companies wanting to use nuclear fusion to make electricity will spend around $7 billion. This will happen before they have their first nuclear fusion plants ready for use.

Fusion happens when two small atoms, like hydrogen, combine at very high heat. This makes a bigger atom and a huge amount of energy is released.

Last year, private companies and government labs spent $500 million on their supply chains to become experts in the fusion process, which can use lasers or magnets. This information was discovered through a survey conducted by the Fusion Industry Association (FIA).

According to a survey of around 20 fusion companies, spending will increase to $7 billion when they build their first power plant. They predict that a mature fusion industry could bring in trillions of dollars, but this won't happen until sometime between 2035 and 2050.

The cost of building the plants will be high. It will take a lot of steel and concrete. They also need superconducting wire. The plants will heat fuels to more than 100 million Celsius. To do this, they need special chambers. Super magnets, lasers, and power supplies are also needed. All of this will cost a lot of money.

Andrew Holland leads the FIA. He thinks there's not much to worry about with supply chain risk. No important parts or materials have supply issues. Also, none of them come only from unstable countries.

Holland said that the big challenge is scalability. He wants the supply chain companies to know about fusion. Holland wants them to invest to scale up.

There is a shortage of tritium worldwide, a fuel that many companies want to use for fusion plants. However, Holland believes this is not a problem. The companies plan to breed tritium within the plants using lithium.

According to him, a fusion plant needs only four electric vehicles' worth of lithium.