Eni Invests in Zero-Carbon Fusion

Italian Eni has agreed to pay $50mn for a “significant stake” in Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) to develop nuclear fusion technology for power generation, it said March 9. CFS was demerged from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is owned by MIT scientists and researchers “who have been involved in plasma physics and fusion processes research for years.”

Eni will support CFS in developing the first commercial power plant producing energy by fusion, which it describes as a “safe, sustainable, virtually inexhaustible source without any emission of pollutants and greenhouse gases.“

The investment gives Eni a seat on the board and it will also contribute its industrial resources and knowhow. Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi said Eni had taken a “significant step forward towards the development of alternative energy sources with an ever lower environmental impact. Fusion is the true energy source of the future, as it is completely sustainable, does not release emissions or long-term waste, and is potentially inexhaustible. It is a goal that we are increasingly determined to reach quickly."

MIT's Alcator fusion reactor 

Source: MIT (Photo: Bob Mumgaard/Plasma Science and Fusion Center)

The activities under consideration with CFS will be divided into three phases: high-temperature superconducting magnets; an experimental net energy fusion device; and the construction and operation of the first industrial fusion plant that would provide a continuous remunerative production of fusion energy.

Eni also signed March 9 an agreement with MIT that will allow the company to jointly carry out research programs on plasma physics and advanced fusion and electromagnets technologies.

Whereas nuclear power today is generated by splitting atoms, fusion – the source of the sun's heat – forces atomic nuclei of low atomic number together, forming a heavier nucleus with the release of energy, requiring vast amounts of pressure and heat.