Can laser-powered nuclear energy light up the future?

As the world transitions away from fossil fuels, nuclear power has entered the spotlight. Emission free and cheap to run, nuclear was declared a “green” source of energy by the European Commission in 2022 – and a crucial tool in the race to net zero. Many countries see it this way. Globally, nuclear power generation is set to reach record levels in 2025. 

Momentum for nuclear power is building; yet criticism remains. The production of nuclear energy through fission – in which a neutron splits a heavy element (usually uranium), and triggers a powerful chain reaction – results in a vast amount of radioactive waste and carries the risk of nuclear disaster should something go wrong. A new wave of researchers and startups believe that an alternative system, nuclear fusion, could harness nuclear energy without the associated risks.   

Among them is Marvel Fusion, a German-based startup founded in 2019. It has pioneered a system that uses laser technology to trigger fusion reactions, and believes it could rapidly advance the commercialisation of fusion energy. To date Marvel Fusion has raised more than €60 million in private funding and over €150 in public cooperation projects, making it the best-funded private fusion company in the EU. It is riding a bigger wave; as optimism for fusion builds, there has been a rapid rise in investment – about $7 billion so far, most of which has come in the past three years. “We now see classic VCs [venture capitals], family offices and so on, all investing in fusion energy,” says Heike Freund, COO of Marvel Fusion. “There is growing support on the public and private side.” 

Freund, who previously was Partner at McKinsey and joined Marvel Fusion in order to spearhead its expansion, points to a number of factors for the accumulating interest. There have been breakthroughs in proving it works, such as a demonstration at the National Ignition Facility in the US, in 2022, which showed that fusion reactions can produce more energy than it takes to trigger a reaction in the first place. There have also been breakthroughs in the underlying technologies, including a number of Nobel-prize winning advances in short-pulse laser technology – the sort used by Marvel Fusion. Many experts believe that fusion energy could be on the grid within a decade. Yet Freund cautions that public perception needs to develop with the industry. “It’s always a part of what we need to do, to explain that fusion is the opposite of fission, that there is no chain-reaction risk, or long-lived nuclear waste. But I do believe people now realise that.”

There are 45 fusion companies in the world. Of these, seven are pursuing a laser-based approach. Marvel Fusion’s model is to develop proprietary technology and IP – its core expertise are the types of lasers and the fuel-pellets called targets – and work with partners when it comes to the building and operation of power plants. In order to move fast at the research stage without high-capital investment, Marvel Fusion has made use of existing laser research facilities round the world – in Munich, the US and Romania – and has completed 2,000 experiments to date. These have been limited by the parameters of each facility, but in 2023 it announced a $150m partnership with Colorado State University to build the first laser facility dedicated to this area of research. This will allow it to test its industrial-scale prototypes, which will be complete in 2026. “It will mean for the first time, we can really demonstrate our unique laser capabilities,” says Freund. “And that is a major milestone – after that it will be a prototype of a power plant, and then the rollout of commercial power plants starting 2035.” 

With such long-term goals, maintaining energy within the company itself is vital: “I'd say that the people that come and join Marvel Fusion are driven by the purpose and the impact that this company can ultimately have. But it’s a 10-year roadmap that we are pursuing. So, what is super important, both internally, but also for our broader shareholders and stakeholders of this company, is that we are breaking down these 10 years into tangible milestones and really showing how these lead us to our ultimate goal of producing safe, reliable, CO2-free energy.”