How nuclear batteries could speed the race to fusion power

Fusion power has always been a bit of a contradiction. The fusion part is actually kind of easy — an undergrad recently built a simple fusion device in his bedroom, for example — but getting electricity out of the reaction isn’t.

“A fusion reactor that makes power — and there’s plenty of those, they already exist,” Daniel Velásquez, materials science lead at Avalanche Energy, told TechCrunch. “A fusion reactor that makes electricity is better.” That’s where the nascent industry remains stuck.