TL;DR
A fusion company founded by a Nobel Prize winner has $34 million in fresh money to build powerful pulsed lasers, first as a shield against drones and missiles and later as the engine of a gigawatt-scale fusion power plant. Blue Laser Fusion, based in Goleta, California, and started by Nobel laureate Shuji Nakamura, says the cash will speed its prototypes toward field testing and push its laser designs toward a gigawatt-scale plant. The bet rests on physics already shown: in 2022 the National Ignition Facility used lasers to make fusion fuel reach ignition and energy gain. The defense laser comes first, and the company has not yet named a fusion test date. Our odds that a laser-driven fusion plant puts power on a grid by 2040 are 25%, with a 55% chance it happens at all, provided the science comes through. For the full odds and the timeline of breakthroughs that leads to laser-powered cities, subscribe.
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