DOE grants $46 million to 8 nuclear fusion startups for clean energy projects.

The Department of Energy is investing $46 million in eight companies developing nuclear fusion power plants, with the goal of achieving a pilot-scale demonstration of fusion within a decade. Unlike nuclear fission, fusion avoids radioactive waste. The companies selected will have to show that their technology can achieve a net energy gain and sustain a fusion reaction long enough to generate a useful amount of electricity. The DOE selected a diverse set of technologies to fund, and the companies will have to hit mutually agreed-upon milestones to receive reimbursement. The initiative is a public-private partnership modeled after the NASA program that helped get the commercial space industry off the ground.