“That’s an aggressive timeline, and nearly every fusion project to date has fallen short of its optimistic promises.”
Commonwealth Fusion Systems needs 10,000 kilometers of superconducting tape for Sparc and has about a third on site. Its schedule promises first plasma in late 2025 and net energy gain by early 2026. Iter, under construction since 2013, now carries a $22 billion estimate. Fusion firms have raised more than $5 billion, mostly since 2021, and every one of them promises gain by the end of the decade.