Four researchers from San Diego-based General Atomics have received awards totaling $6.9 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to continue their work on harnessing the vast potential of nuclear fusion as a source of energy.

In addition, DOE granted $7.8 million to eight researchers across the country to come to General Atomics to perform research at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility that houses what is called a “tokamak” — a doughnut-shaped fusion reactor that is crucial in the pursuit of making nuclear fusion work on a practical level. General Atomics operates the largest tokamak in the nation for the DOE.

Funding “is highly competitive,” said Dave Hill, the director of DIII-D, “and I think this shows that DIII-D is cutting edge and generates a lot of interest and attracts a lot of people wanting to use it.”

The four grants to General Atomics will go to three researchers who will do work on another tokamak in the United Kingdom and one researcher using advanced computing in the development of what is called “burning plasma,” which replicates the same energy source as the sun and stars by causing hydrogen nuclei to collide and fuse into helium atoms.


The awards make up part of a $36.4 million awards package announced Thursday by the Department of Energy for scientists from universities, national laboratories and private industry.

Fusion research goes back to the 1950s at General Atomics. In addition to DIII-D, General Atomics is taking a central role in a vast international effort called ITER, short for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, that is being constructed in France.

Costing billions, the ITER project will go a long way toward finding out if nuclear fusion can deliver on its promise.

Nuclear fusion was the key technology in the development of the hydrogen bomb but if harnessed for energy purposes, scientists believe it can become a source of energy that would be safe, virtually inexhaustible and non-carbon emitting.


“I think we will see the realization of fusion energy in the not too distant future,” Hill said. “We’ll see, I think, in 20 years a burning plasma in ITER and depending on the interest by our government or other governments the next step would be another 20 years past that.”


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