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The Nuclear Tech Breakthrough That Could Make Oil Obsolete

Nuclear fusion field faces a chronic lack of funding. 

The Nuclear Tech Breakthrough That Could Make Oil Obsolete
A view of China’s nuclear fusion device in the Hefei Institute of Physical Science in Anhui, China. (Photographer: Natalie Behring/Bloomberg News)

(Bloomberg) -- We hear a lot about the approaching end of the fossil fuel era. But as various companies work on wind and solar, there's a group of scientists quietly working on another method of generating electricity, in the lab that once created the atomic bomb. This week, Bloomberg Technology's Jing Cao visits the researchers who are smashing hydrogen atoms together in a process called nuclear fusion. They say they're on the brink of a major milestone, but they face an age-old problem: not enough funding.

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To contact the authors of this story: Jing Cao in New York at hcao38@bloomberg.net, Aki Ito in San Francisco at aito16@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pia Gadkari at pgadkari@bloomberg.net, Magnus Henriksson Liz Smith