Posted on 07/17/2025 9:23:39 AM PDT by Red Badger
The codename: Project Solis. The work: nuclear fusion testing. The cost: $1 billion. The site: Albuquerque?
For the past few months, local and state officials have discreetly been talking with Pacific Fusion, a California-based company that could set up a 225,000-square-foot nuclear fusion facility worth $1 billion in Albuquerque’s Mesa del Sol or another site in the city. With the research and development facility could come 200 permanent jobs and hundreds more construction jobs.
The New Mexico Economic Development Department and Pacific Fusion officials announced on Wednesday a memorandum of understanding for the site. Officials had been working on the project behind the scenes for the past few months under the pseudonym Project Solis.
Pacific Fusion was founded in 2023 with the initial goal of achieving what is known as “net facility gain” in fusion by the end of the decade — essentially generating more energy than is consumed. The Mesa del Sol facility, subject to change, would help the company reach that milestone.
Nuclear fusion is the process of combining atomic nuclei to a single, heavier nucleus, which releases large amounts of energy. For example, the sun is powered by fusion. But achieving fusion here on Earth has proven difficult.
The work differs from nuclear fission, which splits nuclei and is already used at nuclear power plants to generate electricity. This project wouldn’t create a power plant.
Fusion has long been considered “the holy grail of energy,” said Pacific Fusion Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer Carrie Von Muench. She said nuclear fusion has no carbon emissions, no long-lived radioactive waste and provides on-demand power.
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
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LOL. It was true 50 years ago too.
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