Fusion power has a fuel problem; Hexium has a laser-powered solution

Fusion startups have a tough row to hoe. Their mission? To create a new kind of power plant that produces more energy than it consumes — something no one has ever done with fusion energy before. That means proving their technology works, showing it can be scaled up, and convincing investors it can all be done profitably. That’s already a tall order. But there’s another big challenge that gets far less attention: where to get the fuel. Most fusion startups will say that they’ll be producing their own fuel, thank you very much. And technically, they’re right. But that answer glosses over a key point: to make tritium — one of the key ingredients for fusion — they first need a specific isotope of lithium, one that’s in very short supply today. That thought dawned on Charlie Jerrott a few years ago when he was working at fusion startup Focused Energy. “I realized no one is working on this supply chain stuff. There’s a whole bunch of fusion companies. There isn’t a single company that is ... Read full article.