– Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research is launching a funding program for nuclear fusion research
– Fusion research is supported by institutions like the Max Plank Institute for Plasma Physics, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the Research Centre Jülich
– The aim is to construct Germany’s first fusion power plant by 2040, with a focus on advancing technologies, components, and materials needed for fusion power plants.
Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has launched a funding program to support nuclear fusion research with the goal of constructing the nation’s first fusion power plant by 2040. The ministry has been a long-time supporter of fusion research at various institutes in Germany. The program aims to advance the technologies, components, and materials needed for a fusion power plant by the early 2030s and subsequently focus on integration into a power plant design.
Nuclear fusion involves combining light hydrogen nuclei at high temperatures to release energy for generating electricity, unlike traditional nuclear fission that involves splitting heavy nuclei. Fusion is considered safer as it produces less nuclear waste. Countries around the world are increasingly interested in fusion as a potential source of abundant energy. In the US, a laboratory recently achieved nuclear fusion ignition reactions multiple times, which release more energy than consumed.
Germany’s Federal Research Minister emphasized the importance of fusion in addressing energy challenges and highlighted Germany’s strong research landscape and industry for building fusion power plants. The ministry plans to invest over €1bn in fusion research by 2028, with additional funding allocated over the next five years to support research and development in the field.