Israel's Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure published a strategic report on Thursday detailing Israel's opportunity to enter the global nuclear fusion industry, a sector the ministry claims could become one of the world's major energy sources in the coming decades and develop into a market worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
Multiple countries and private companies have been looking towards nuclear fusion as the energy of the future, using reactors to generate energy by smashing hydrogen isotopes together, a process that does not emit greenhouse gases or produce the level of nuclear waste that the current system of nuclear fission used in typical nuclear power plants does.
Since 2021, over $14 billion has been invested in the nuclear fusion industry, including approximately $4.5 billion in the past year alone.
According to the report, the first commercial fusion plants could be connected to electricity grids during the 2030s, developing into a global market worth hundreds of billions of dollars between 2040 and 2050.
Major technology companies including Microsoft and Google have already signed agreements with companies to purchase electricity from future fusion plants.
Israel already home to fusion research, development
Israel's expertise in several technologies essential to the development of fusion reactors, including high-power laser systems, power electronics and radio-frequency (RF) technologies, artificial intelligence and simulations, advanced materials, and robotics, provides it with an advantage and the potential to enter the industry as a supplier of critical technologies, expertise, and components, the ministry said.
Israel is also home to the Israeli Institute for Nuclear Fusion and Hot Plasma, which supports research in the sector and which the ministry is proposing to expand through investment in scholarships, workforce training, and academic research, at an estimated cost of NIS 50 million to NIS 100 million over five years.
Additionally, multiple companies within Israel are developing related technologies, including nT-Tao, which is developing a compact fusion reactor, and FusionMantle, which focuses on developing components for fusion reactor cores.
Energy ministry poses pathways to fusion development
The ministry proposed three different options for the national development in order to increase investment and development of nuclear fusion technologies within Israel, ranging from NIS 50 million to NIS 2 billion over five to ten years.
The first focuses on expanding Israel's academic research by investing in scholarships, workforce training, and academic research at an estimated cost of NIS 50 million to NIS 100 million over five years.
The so-called 'infrastructure-focused package' involves an estimated investment of 500 million to NIS 1billion over five to seven years in areas where Israel holds a competitive advantage, and would include new funding programs through public-private partnerships and making research infrastructure accessible to academia and industry.
The ministry's final and most comprehensive package involves an investment of NIS 1 billion to NIS 2 billion over seven to ten years to develop a complete national fusion ecosystem. A national coordinating authority would be established, major research facilities would be upgraded, academic training programs would be developed, and the ministry would look towards the possibility of establishing an experimental fusion reactor in Israel through an international partnership.
According to the ministry's report, Israel must take action in the coming years, or it will miss the critical window in which global supply chains are being established, and it will be significantly harder to enter the industry.