🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Inertia’s path from lab breakthrough to grid power faces engineering hurdles

• A December 2022 fusion ignition experiment at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) produced 3.15 MJ of fusion energy from 2.05 MJ of laser energy delivered to the target. NIF is a research facility, so it was not built for efficiency and its laser system uses far more energy than the fusion shot produces 1.
• To sell electricity at scale, Inertia needs new hardware. That includes a laser that fires ten times per second. It also needs a factory that can mass-produce fuel targets, with a target price under $1 each 2.
• The fuel supply remains a tough constraint. Tritium, part of deuterium-tritium fusion fuel cycles, has a 12.3-year half-life. Current global production from Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) fission reactors is less than four kilograms per year 3.

Inertia fits a new approach for turning national lab work into companies

• The company links its case to rising U.S. electricity demand from AI and data centers. Bessemer Venture Partners puts data center use at about 183 terawatt-hours a year, roughly 4% of U.S. electricity, and projects demand could more than double over the next ~5 years 4.
• Inertia also leans on public-private partnerships. It describes a first-of-its-kind agreement that lets Dr. Annie Kritcher co-found Inertia while continuing her role at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) 5.
• Federal policy has moved in parallel. The Fusion Energy Act, included in the ADVANCE Act and signed in July 2024, sets a streamlined U.S. regulatory path by treating fusion systems under a framework closer to particle accelerators than nuclear fission reactors 3.