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Adam Tooze: Why Nuclear Fusion Is Not the Holy Grail

A recent breakthrough is good news, but renewables are still the better bet.

By , a deputy editor at Foreign Policy.
A worker explains a photo of construction to an interior plasma chamber.
A worker explains a photo of construction to an interior plasma chamber.
A worker explains a photo that shows construction of the interior plasma chamber of an experimental fusion reactor at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald, Germany, on Oct. 29, 2013. Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Last month in California, a nuclear reactor produced 3.15 megajoules of energy using only 2.05 megajoules of energy input. That surplus has been treated as a major breakthrough in the future of energy because it was produced through the process of nuclear fusion. Experts have talked for decades about nuclear fusion’s potential as a carbon neutral source of energy without any of nuclear energy’s toxic waste.

Cameron Abadi is a deputy editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @CameronAbadi

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Tags: Energy Policy, Nuclear Energy, Renewable Energy, United States

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