How Washington State Became A Fusion Energy Hub

All around the globe, there's a lot of talk about fusion power. The promise of possibly limitless power by taking atoms nuclei and fusing them together. Talk about fusion power is especially prominent in Washington state.

According to. Axios.com,
‘The Seattle region is solidifying its place as a global leader in the race for fusion energy, with five major companies looking to crack the code on the clean, sustainable power source.
In a rapidly warming and carbon-dependent world, there's a "huge prize" for developing and commercializing fusion energy, Mike Sexsmith of General Fusion said last month at Seattle Fusion Week.’

Those of us in the Wenatchee area are more than familiar with what Helion Energy is planning to do by building a fusion power plant in Malaga and selling the electricity to Microsoft to power their new data center. But Helion is not the only player in the game.

who are the players?

You have a company called Zap Energy that just received $5 million from the US Department of Energy. Avalanche Energy, specializing in smaller fusion power plants for submersibles. (They just raised 40 million.) Two other companies, Exo Fusion and Kyoto Engineering, both specialize in technologies that are considered essential to the fusion process.

There are people that are not enamored with the idea of fusion technology claiming that all the funding that fusion companies are receiving is being diverted from wind, hydroelectric, and solar projects.