Frank Laukien, a U.S.-German physicist and billionaire entrepreneur, typically exudes the calm rationality of a CEO who runs a large, multinational company. In his long career, he has turned his Bruker Corporation, based outside of Boston, into one of the world’s leading manufacturers of scientific instruments.
But when Laukien was recently handed the microphone at Forum Fusion, an annual get-together of scientists, engineers, and business people in Berlin, he sounded exuberant. Within 20 years, he pronounced, scientists would be able to emulate the process that fuels the sun and use it to generate infinite green energy on Earth. “If we really want a fully renewable energy supply, we need fusion as a third pillar,” Laukien said, in addition to wind farms and solar panels. “Fusion is the key to a decarbonized future.”
Observers could be forgiven for reacting to Laukien’s claims with skepticism. Fusion has been talked about for so long, and has faced such daunting challenges, that its realization — if it is realized at all — has always seemed extremely far off in the future. Even pursuing it, some critics felt, was a distraction from taking more immediate action to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Read More: Yale Environment 360
Technicians inspect a nuclear fusion ignition chamber at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. (Photo Credit: U.S. Department of Energy)