US Energy Secretary Chris Wright has claimed that nuclear fusion can be harnessed within the next five years, and that its application to the electricity grid is expected within eight to fifteen years.
Fusion research has been ongoing for over a century, with experiments beginning in the 1950s, but there has recently been a surge in private investment. Nearly $10 billion has been raised in the last five years, primarily from private funders in the USA.
Fusion expert Matthew Hole tells Bertie Harrison-Broninski that many of these new companies are likely to go bankrupt, and that fusion power is unlikely to be operational in time to contribute to net zero targets. They discuss the different forms of fuel for fusion power, the world’s largest fusion project in France, and the high-risk, high-reward nature of fusion investment.
Matthew Hole is a professor at the Mathematical Sciences Institute at the Australian National University and a leading authority on plasma fusion physics. In 2005, he founded the Australian ITER Forum and currently serves as co-chair of the International Fusion Research Council of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Further reading:
- ‘Nuclear fusion will change the world – but not in time for net zero’, Matthew Hole, Land and Climate Review, 2025
- ‘US energy chief tells BBC nuclear fusion will soon power the world‘, Justin Rowlatt, BBC, 2025
- ‘Helion Energy starts construction on nuclear fusion plant to power Microsoft data centers‘, Stephen Nellis, Reuters, 2025
- ‘Iter, the nuclear-fusion project proving that multilateral collaboration still works‘, Simon Bouvier, Monocle, 2025
- ‘What’s fueling the commercial fusion hype?’ Victor Gilinsky, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 2024
- ‘What’s the difference between fusion and fission? A nuclear physicist explains‘, Matthew Hole, The Conversation, 2024
