A new report with bipartisan congressional support calls for the U.S. to win the “fusion energy race against China” by building several fusion demonstration power plants and investing $10 billion into the sector.
The report was published Thursday by the Special Competitive Studies Project, a four-year-old nonprofit run by ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and was authored by a commission co-chaired by Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and James Risch (R-Idaho). It comes less than a month after industry leaders told Congress that the Department of Energy must overhaul and better fund its fusion programs to prevent China from dominating the emerging fusion power race.
Andrew Holland, head of the Fusion Industry Association and an adviser to the commission, said he supported the document, which he termed a “call to action.”
“It’s incredibly valuable that two members of Congress chaired a commission with really senior experienced people,” Holland said. “The fact that these people signed off on it speaks a lot more than just industry saying we have to do this.”
