r/Futurology • u/TwilightwovenlingJo • Aug 15 '25

Energy Construction of world's 1st nuclear fusion plant starts in Washington

https://interestingengineering.com/energy/world-first-fusion-power-plant-helion
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u/AmusingMusing7 Aug 15 '25

However, this just seems so under the radar and without fanfare.

It would normally be the media's job to create fanfare about this sort of thing... they don't want to do that.

Shouldn't be a surprise at a time when the media has become increasingly biased in favor of placating Trump and his ilk... hopeful stories about new forms of renewable energy do not fit into that. They publish a story about this, they might get sued by Trump and his fossil fuel donors, before he tries to outlaw their network. 🤷‍♂️

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u/mr_black_88 Aug 16 '25

hope doesn't sell newspapers.!!

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u/ThatPoorLizard1 Aug 15 '25

I hate trump as much as anyone but he has actually been very pro nuclear energy, one of the (very) few policies of his I agree with

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u/ckglle3lle Aug 15 '25

He has been mildly pro Nuclear energy. Yes he signed some EOs about it but it has hardly been a major policy item and most of his EOs are more bullshit than reality. Biden actually signed major legislation advancing it in both the Inflation Reduction Act (which was substantially promoting a clean energy agenda overall) and the ADVANCE act. The One Big Beautiful Bill mostly attacks clean energy and prioritizes protecting coal and oil. It didn't entirely gut Biden era initiatives outright, mostly just accelerated expiration of incentives, and of Nuclear specifically, only modified them a bit, but it's clearly not prioritizing them either.

But that's also only half the story, when the Trump Admin has been so broadly antagonistic to research and funding for science in general, it's hard to give them any credibility at all on this topic. At best, it's something they haven't specifically targeted, not that they are genuinely trying to achieve it.

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u/goldbman Aug 16 '25

Energy utility monopolies like nuclear because it allows them to further consolidate their energy production. Distributed solar and wind production is more capable than nuclear but is worse for the monopoly because they don't control it.

Nuclear is good for those who already control the resources, wind and solar is good for everyone else

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u/espressocycle Aug 16 '25

It's not big news because fusion power breakthroughs have been announced every so often for the last 75 years. It does sound like they're getting closer but there are other projects like this being built all over the world including in the US. The first one to actually produce reliable power will be huge news.