Partnership could lead to first fusion power plant in Ontario

Magnetized target fusion technology is seen in this undated handout photo. (Source: General Fusion)

The joke in the scientific world is that fusion energy is 20 years away, and always will be. Well, Jay Brister from General Fusion says otherwise.

“I like to tell people fusion is getting much more tangible than it ever has,” says Brister, the chief business development officer with the B.C.-based fusion development company.

General Fusion has joined forces with the Port Elgin, Ont.-based Nuclear Innovation Institute and Ontario’s largest nuclear plant, Bruce Power, to work towards advancing fusion-based electricity and possibly building a fusion power plant in Ontario.

“If there was an area in Ontario that would be a potential candidate for it, the Bruce Power site would be at the top of that list,” says Bruce Power’s Chief Development Officer James Scongack.

Bruce Power’s CANDU reactors harness the powers of 'fission,' splitting one atom into two, to power their nuclear fleet.

'Fusion,' which unleashes the power of combining two atoms into one, has not yet been harnessed commercially to produce electricity, -- until now, says General Fusion.

The company is about to build a fusion demonstration plant in the United Kingdom, with operations to begin in three years' time.

“That will bring us to the point that we’re ready to put a shovel in the ground by the end of this decade on the first fusion power plant, with operations anticipated in the early 2030s,” says Brister.

And if all goes according to plan, that first fusion plant could be built at or near the Bruce Power site.

“A lot of the attributes that we have for a nuclear site would make sense for a fusion site. It’s a secure site, there are utilities, support services, technical staff, not to mention the 60+ clean energy companies that are in the tri-county (Bruce, Grey, Huron) region,” says Scongack.

Hold your horses, says University of British Columbia professor and nuclear power researcher, Dr. M.V. Ramana.

He doesn’t believe fusion energy will be commercially feasible for many, many decades, if ever.

“As of today, no experiment in the the world has actually produced more energy than has been put in, so we are far from even the point where we can contemplate fusion being a source of energy,” he says.

That isn’t dulling the excitement at General Fusion or Bruce Power, who believe fusion energy could be part of the answer to our future carbon-free energy needs.

“To tackle net zero we need massive volumes of clean power, so that allows us to say, 'Let’s put every tool in the tool box on the table to tackle this problem,'” says Scongack.