Pacific Fusion breaks ground on New Mexico demonstration plant

Pacific Fusion has broken ground on a demonstration facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that the company says will be the first to generate enough energy to power itself. The startup described the project as a major step toward commercializing fusion power.

The facility is designed to achieve net facility gain, meaning it produces as much energy as it consumes. "It's a huge step forward for commercial fusion power," said Carrie von Muench, co-founder and chief operating officer. "To our knowledge, there's no such facility being constructed in the country."

No experiment or device has yet achieved net facility gain. While the National Ignition Facility has demonstrated controlled fusion reactions that produce more energy than they consume, the output remains far from enough to run the facility itself.

Pacific Fusion aims to hit net facility gain by 2030, with a commercial power plant targeted for the mid-2030s. The commercial-scale reactor will need to generate roughly five times more energy than the demonstration system to support additional plant equipment.

The company's approach uses tightly coordinated pulses of electricity to create a magnetic field around a fuel target about the size of a pencil eraser, compressing it until the fuel atoms fuse.