Energy & Environment — A nuclear fusion breakthrough

by Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk - 12/12/22 6:18 PM ET

An image of stars. — iStock.
Nuclear fusion is the same energy that powers the sun and stars.

A national laboratory has reportedly cracked a long-lasting nuclear fusion riddle. We’ll dig into the details.

Plus: The Biden administration has announced billions of dollars in loans for EV batteries, and an international agency says Europe’s energy crisis could deepen.

This is Overnight Energy & Environment, your source for the latest news focused on energy, the environment and beyond. For The Hill, we’re Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk. Subscribe here or in the box below.

Scientists expected to announce fusion breakthrough

Federal scientists have reportedly made a breakthrough in the potential for nuclear fusion as a carbon-free power source.

The Financial Times reported on Sunday that scientists with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory produced more energy than was consumed in a fusion reaction for the first time.

The Washington Post and Bloomberg separately confirmed the Times’s reporting.

The backstory: Nuclear fusion refers to fusing atoms together to produce energy. The type of nuclear energy that is commonly used today does the opposite, deriving energy from splitting atoms apart.

How we got here: For decades, scientists have sought to advance nuclear fusion as a carbon-free source of energy that also doesn’t produce the radioactive waste that occurs when atoms are split apart.

Breanna Bishop, a spokesperson for the national lab, declined to confirm the reports or provide details on what the lab has achieved.

“Our analysis is still ongoing, so we’re unable to provide details or confirmation at this time. We look forward to sharing more tomorrow when that process is complete,” Bishop said in an email.
However, the Energy Department is slated to hold a press conference Tuesday on a “major scientific breakthrough.”

Paul Dabbar, who was the Energy Department’s Under Secretary for Science during the Trump administration, described the reported development as a “giant jump” forward.

GM, LG get $2.5 billion loan for electric vehicle plants

The Biden administration on Monday announced a loan of $2.5 billion to a joint General Motors (GM) and LG venture that will manufacture electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

The Energy Department will provide the loan through its Loan Programs Office to the joint venture, Ultium Cells.
The money is expected to go toward battery manufacturing facilities in Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee.

The background: The announcement comes as GM pursues a goal of all-electric vehicle production by 2035. It’s also the first closed loan specifically for battery-cell manufacturing, according to the Energy Department.

“Investing in American production and Ohio workers is part of the work we are doing to put in place a new pro-American, pro-worker industrial policy,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who is up for reelection in 2024, said in a statement Monday.

“This loan will support Ohio in taking another step to lead the country and the world in producing sustainable technology and electric vehicles that Americans will need and drive over the next century,” he added.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement that the loan “will jumpstart the domestic battery cell production needed to reduce our reliance on other countries to meet increased demand and support President Biden’s goals of widespread EV adoption and cutting carbon pollution produced by gas-powered vehicles.”

Workers at the Ohio plant voted overwhelmingly last week to unionize, forming the first union at a U.S. electric vehicle battery plant. The vote suggests union labor could play a major role in the EV build-out.

EU energy crisis could worsen in 2023, group warns

While the European Union (EU) has largely been able to ward off an energy debacle this year, 2023 could prove to be a “sterner test” for the bloc, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned in a report released Monday.

EU member nations have taken considerable steps this year to curb their reliance on Russian gas supplies following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and have pushed to fill up domestic storage facilities.

But come next winter, Russian provisions could plummet further and global stockpiles of liquified natural gas (LNG) may be tight, according to the report. Meanwhile, the unseasonably mild temperatures that Europe has experienced thus far this season will not necessarily persist.

“The European Union has made significant progress in reducing reliance on Russian natural gas supplies, but it is not out of the danger zone yet,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a statement.

Birol launched the report alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen ahead of a meeting of EU energy ministers on Tuesday and a European Council session on Thursday.
“We have been able to manage, we have been able to withstand the blackmail. We have acted, and we have acted successfully,” von der Leyen said at a press conference in Brussels.

The European Commission president touted Europe’s success in carrying out its plan to reduce demand for Russian gas by two-thirds before the end of the year — a vision supported with investments of up to 300 billion euros ($316 billion).