Imagine dropping a pea-sized capsule through a spherical chamber and hitting it with a colossal bolt of laser energy as it falls. If the capsule contains a mixture of deuterium and tritium, two heavy versions (isotopes) of hydrogen, then the atoms may fuse, turning into helium and emitting fast neutrons as they do so. Those neutrons and their accompanying radiation can heat molten salts around the walls of the chamber and that heat can be used to power industrial processes – or to boil water and generate electricity through a steam turbine.

That’s the dream of a firm called Xcimer, one of the more ingenious fusion energy startups, based in Colorado. Three years ago, on 5 December 2022, at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, this technique was used to reach a signific

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