OUR STORY

In 2021, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on global warming determined for the first time that global warming is caused by human activity. Carbon dioxide concentrations have increased by around 40% since the pre-industrial age, and the average global temperature has risen by 1.09°C in the 140 years since 1880. This increase is unprecedented and has not occured at any point in the last 2,000 years, and the average temperature of Earth today exceeds estimates of temperatures during even the warmest periods of the last 100,000 years.

It has also been pointed out that the effects of the rapid rise in carbon dioxide levels are not limited to global warming, but also include the acidification of seawater, since carbon is taken up by the oceans. This means that production of carbon dioxide is also affecting the natural ecosystem. Over the past billion years, the Earth has created and sustained life. Humankind has upset the equilibrium of the carbon cycle and the responsibility for the current situation falls squarely on us.

Global warming and other environmental problems have led us to a crisis in which the very survival of the planet is at stake. It is imperative that we find globally-relevant solutions to the problem if humankind is to have a prosperous future. The answer is to find a way to a “new energy society”, one in which truly innovative solutions can realise a net zero, fully decarbonised world. This is the challenge for all humankind.

*Figures in the text are based on WMO and Ministry of the Environment announcements.

To decarbonise the world, a new energy source is needed. One which is safe, low carbon and with sufficient supply of natural resource. “Fusion energy” will provide the ultimate solution – an energy source unlike any other, and that uniquely meets all these requirements.

Nuclear fusion is the same process that powers the sun and the stars. It is a reaction in which the nuclei of light atoms, such as hydrogen, collide and “fuse” to form heavier nuclei. In this process, very large amounts of energy are produced. Scientists have been developing an understanding of this reaction for almost a century, and efforts to build a fusion reactor to harness this reaction have been previously described as the mission to make a star on Earth.

Fusion energy has the potential to solve current energy and environmental problems. The primary fuels for the reaction are abundant in seawater. The reaction does not produce carbon dioxide. There is no possibility of the severe accident scenarios as with nuclear fission, and no high-level radioactive waste is produced. It is for these reasons that research institutes around the world have been working for many years to develop fusion to usher in a new generation of clean energy. In Japan, Dr. Hideki Yukawa, a Nobel laureate in physics who made a great contribution to human understanding of the structure of the atomic nucleus. Dr. Hideki’s research unveiled the potential of nuclear fusion and provided the spark for fusion research activities to be initiated in Japan. Since then, Japan’s national research institutes have continually played a leading role in the global development of fusion technology.

ITER, the international fusion reactor project, is an indispensable part of the fusion story. The origins of this project go back to the 1985 summit between the United States and the Soviet Union, during the Cold War. International cooperation for peaceful purposes was possible at this time because there were few security constraints on the research and development of fusion energy using magnetic confinement.

The design of ITER, which is still under construction and is scheduled to start operation in 2025 and fusion in 2035, was already finalised after 2000 because it is a huge project that requires coordination between countries and cannot fail. What has troubled researchers around the world is the fact that new innovations born after 2000 cannot be incorporated into ITER now. In the midst of this dilemma, private companies around the world started to build new fusion reactors around 2018. This is not a confrontation between ITER and the private sector, but a peaceful competition initiated by ITER with the common goal to bring fusion energy to humanity as soon as possible.

As the world moves towards a decarbonised world, the era of dependence on depletable resources will eventually come to an end. As of 2021, there are more than 50 private companies in the world involved in fusion development, and the dawn of an industry is just around the corner.

In October 2019, Kyoto Fusioneering Ltd was spun out of Kyoto University as Japan’s first fusion start-up. The company – co-founded by Taka Nagao, Satoshi Konishi, Richard Pearson and Shutaro Takeda – believes that fusion is the ultimate energy solution for humankind, and that it is no longer a dream. However, to make the dream a reality, a new energy industry must be forged. Kyoto Fusioneering’s mission is to tackle the reactor engineering and technology challenges, whilst cooperating with fusion developers around the world, to rapidly accelerate the growth of the fusion industry. The company’s business model is to conduct R&D and design of innovative fusion reactor technologies, and to provide these alongside engineering solutions to both private fusion enterprises and publicly funded fusion programmes at global research institutions.

The company’s co-founder, Satoshi Konishi, was the first and second chairman of the International Coordinating Committee for the ITER Blanket programme. His engineering expertise is a strong foundation for a technology that is now needed by research institutes around the world.