Inside the race to open the world’s first nuclear fusion power plant

Nuclear fusion offers a path to emissions-free, unlimited energy by replicating the process that powers the sun. Achieving this on Earth requires heating hydrogen plasma to over 100 million degrees Celsius and containing it, a challenge historically addressed through massive, expensive projects like ITER. Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), led by CEO Bob Mumgaard, leverages high-temperature superconducting magnets to build smaller, more efficient tokamak reactors. These magnets, made from rare-earth barium copper oxide, enable higher magnetic fields, allowing for compact, commercially viable fusion machines. CFS aims to demonstrate a net-energy-gain fusion reaction with its SPARC reactor by 2027, followed by the development of the ARC power plant in the early 2030s. This approach shifts fusion from a multi-billion-dollar government science project toward a scalable, industrial manufacturing model capable of meeting global energy demands.