A running joke among physicists (yes, these folks can be funny) is that nuclear fusion for large-scale energy generation is 20 years away from being commercially successful … and always will be.
Greg Piefer, the founder and chief executive officer of SHINE Technologies in Janesville, wouldn’t frown over that punchline, but he’s the first to say fusion for other purposes ranging from fighting cancer to national security, and from inspecting industrial components to recycling nuclear waste, comes first and is no laughing matter.
In fact, it’s happening now.
Piefer is a UW–Madison College of Engineering product who is bullish about fusion uses today while urging patience over its longer-term energy use. In fact, he advocates more fission energy production until the day comes that fusion revolutionizes how the world is powered.
That calls for definitions: Fusion is the same atomic reaction that powers the sun. It’s an emissions-free form of energy generation that works by melding lightweight atoms (deuterium and tritium) to produce subatomic particle neutrons, helium, and energy. Fission occurs when the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei and other particles, producing energy through a controlled process.
With fusion, much of the fuel source is infinite and the energy density is at least 10 million times that of fossil fuels. There are no carbon emissions and the neutrons produced by a reaction are far more useful and valuable than the energy it takes to launch a reaction.
That’s where SHINE Technologies comes in. Over time, the company has become a leading source of neutrons used in creating Lutetium-177. If paired with a cancer-seeking molecule, this medical isotope can deliver highly targeted radiation to cancerous cells — killing the cancer but saving healthy cells. The company is also working to produce Molybdenum-99, which deteriorates into Technetium for diagnostic medical tests.
Neutron imaging is another SHINE product. Such imaging provides detailed information about critical aerospace and defense components and equipment, including turbine blades, ammunition, and energetic devices. This nondestructive testing technique can identify critical flaws before untimely failures happen.
The latest company breakthrough came in mid-January when SHINE executed a four-year contract with the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority to help demonstrate controlled “breeding” of tritium, which is a major step toward building fusion power plants in the future. Deuterium can be readily extracted from seawater, but tritium is hard to come by and must be mined in a controlled setting.
“We’re super happy about where we sit in the fusion ecosystem today,” Piefer said during a recent interview. “We believe we will be the first fusion company to be operationally sustainable and economically viable.”
At the same time, Piefer said, he is “cheering” for other fusion companies to succeed because it will take a collective effort to grasp the Holy Grail of fusion — energy produced on a mass scale.
“Fusion will eventually be the way the world produces most of its energy,” Piefer said. “It will be transformative, and it will solve the carbon problem … but betting the carbon future of the earth on commercial fusion plants happening soon is not a bet I would make.”
He thinks the fusion energy transition will take decades, meaning that fission is a “good bet” in the meantime because it’s emissions-free, a known technology, and capable of producing huge amounts of power at a time when a data-hungry world needs it.
Fusion can also help solve the fission waste problem today, Piefer said, not only for next generation “small module” plants but for older plants that can be recommissioned.
One example is the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, which is expected to reopen in 2028. The plant’s owner, Constellation Energy, is working with Microsoft to restart the plant and sell its power for use in data centers. That recommissioning is being led by Constellation chief generation officer Bryan Hanson, also a UW—Madison engineering graduate.
Fusion is no joke at SHINE Technologies, but it’s still worth closing with a one-liner: “A neutron walks into a bar and asks, ‘How much for a drink?’ The bartender replies: ‘For you, no charge!’”
