Policy Punchline

Since the race towards high-powered, destructive bombs during World War II, nuclear technologies have captured the public’s imagination in the discourse over energy and society. Large-scale nuclear fission, which involves the splitting of an atom, has been particularly crucial in the energy mix and electricity production in many Western countries over the past few decades. Nuclear fusion – where two atoms collide to create energy – has played a much lesser role in modern energy systems and is much less known than its fission counterpart. One man is hoping to change that. Sir Steven Cowley has been at the forefront for pushing frontier research and wide adoption of nuclear fusion technology. A leader in some of the most advanced nuclear projects, including the Joint European Torus and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, Sir Cowley's knowledge and passion for fusion is contagious. Now, as the head of the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab (PPPL), the leading fusion research center in the U.S., Sir