E137: The Missing Ingredient for Fusion Energy

We need to triple global energy production by 2050. Renewables are scaling fast, but the real wild card that could change everything might just be fusion. The physics and engineering are closer than ever, but there’s a critical materials problem standing between us and unlimited clean energy.This week on Everybody in the Pool, Molly speaks with Dr. John Elling, a Los Alamos chemist turned serial entrepreneur who’s working on a solution that he believes will change the world. Both fusion and next-generation fission reactors rely on enriched lithium isotopes, and existing enrichment methods are slow, expensive, and require massive facilities. Dr. Elling’s company, Molten Salt Solutions, is developing a simpler, cheaper process and building the US's first commercial production facility for enriched lithium — the ingredient that could determine whether fusion energy ever actually reaches the grid.We talk about:The big problem facing both fusion and advanced fission right now: the unmet demand for fuelA refresher on the science behind enriched lithium and nuclear energyThe world’s growing energy demands, and why fusion will help us meet the 3x demand we’ll face by 2050Why the US dismantled its only enrichment facility and why Russia currently holds the only meaningful supplyHow Molten Salt Solutions' mercury-free, scalable process differs from how governments did it during the nuclear weapons eraThe race to supply fusion developers with material they need now, before commercial reactors even existWhy the current administration's push to reduce regulatory barriers for small modular reactors is accelerating demand for lithium-7John's case for why fusion is the final frontier of humanity’s energy evolutionLinks:Molten Salt Solutions: https://www.moltensaltsolutions.com/All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/2EsDhwQC2zSubscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show (and support future field trips): https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.