The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), a non-profit research organization supported by major utilities, recently published a report on the prospects for fusion energy in the coming decades.

There are two main approaches to fusion energy – Magnetic Confinement Fusion and Inertial Confinement Fusion. Both approaches have subcategories (EPRI counts seven approaches in total), and the EPRI report provides some technical explanations of each, including potential advantages and limitations.

EPRI’s report issues three key recommendations: 1) direct more fusion research to operational challenges of a power plant, 2) identify common materials and technology needs that could be used in multiple approaches to fusion, 3) monitor and periodically evaluate status fusion research, so as to identify the most promising concepts.

The first recommendation revolves around the notion that fusion energy research needs to be focused more on how to produce fusion for practical purposes – harnessing energy in a power plant. This would be a departure from the current focus, as EPRI suggests, which centers on basic research instead of how to produce practical energy.

The second recommendation relates to the fact that one of the main technical barriers to producing net energy from fusion is in materials science. For in magnetic fusion devices – tokamaks – harness hot plasma to compress fuel. In Inertial fusion, lasers shoot fuel contained in a pellet. However, one major obstacle to both approaches is finding the right materials that can handle the extreme temperatures. If scientists can address that problem, one of the major technical hold-ups can be addressed.

The third recommendation – monitoring the status of fusion research – is an interesting one because as of right now, it is unclear which approach will be successful. Pursuing multiple options will increase the probability of success. However, periodically evaluating fusion programs will allow the fusion community to identify which approaches appear to be the most likely to lead to practical fusion power.

Once fusion research nears commercialization, EPRI provides two follow-on recommendations: the establishment of an advisory group of utilities to plan for fusion power plants; and the need to begin the regulatory framework for permitting and licensing. These two recommendations are important – once fusion power is proven to be viable, the electric power industry and the regulatory authorities need to be ready to pave the way for commercial fusion power.

Getting electrons on the grid from a fusion reactor will take time and investment. EPRI concluded, that “[u]ltimately, demonstration facilities sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy will be required, just as was the case in the early days of water reactor technologies.”

EPRI concluded that all seven fusion proposals (which includes subcategories of Magnetic and Inertial fusion) are “worthy of continuing R&D funding but that none were ready to be exploited as near-term power sources.”

To see more on ASP’s fusion work, click here. 

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