Will non-thermal nuclear fusion be the Holy Grail of clean energy?

Australia-based deep tech startup HB11 Energy has successfully exhibited what one of its physicist co-founders theoretically posited as a path to clean energy generation, utilizing high power, high precision lasers to start fusion reactions between hydrogen and boron-11 rather than heating hydrogen isotopes to hundred-million-degree temperatures.The achievement came two years after the company had filed a patent application.Using lasers instead of thermal fusion was something predicted in the 1970s at the University of New South Wales by Australian theoretical physicist and HB11 Energy co-founder, Heinrich Hora. It differs radically from most other fusion efforts which require the heating of hydrogen isotopes to millions of degrees.Get more updates on this story and more with The Blueprint, our daily newsletter: Sign up here for free.Nuclear fusion is the process of combining two…

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