Unsure what to do with your rancid old hot dog factory? Apparently, the answer is simple: turn it into a fusion reactor facility.
As TechCrunch reports, a company called Realta Fusion is building a fusion reactor inside an old Oscar Mayer hot dog factory in Wisconsin. The refurbished facility is called Forge, and according to Realta cofounder and CEO Kieran Furlong, it’s due to begin operations by 2029 to test whether fusion reactors can actually make a profit by generating more electricity than they require.
“From sausages to fusion,” Furlong told TechCrunch, touting Realta as Wisconsin’s nuclear “state champion.”
The company chose the site because of its “ample” access to power and its proximity to the startup’s existing headquarters.
Per TechCrunch, Realta recently demonstrated that it could generate electricity using a fusion device dubbed Wisconsin HTS Axisymmetric Mirror, or WHAM for short, a successful experiment that the startup claimed as the first of its kind.
Put simply, nuclear reactors replicate the process our Sun uses to generate energy by fusing atoms together under extreme conditions. Realta’s WHAM uses a novel process called direct energy conversion (DEC), which extracts electricity from charged particles emitted by plasma. That sets it aside from other fusion reactor designs that capture heat to spin turbines and generate electricity.
Despite early promising results — scientists only recently started showing that fusion reactors can indeed generate a surplus of energy — we’re still far from proving that it’s a scalable and renewable source of electricity.
But that hasn’t stopped a flourishing cottage industry of fusion startups from trying. With backing from some of the most influential names in tech, from OpenAI’s Sam Altman to Microsoft founder Bill Gates, companies are promising a safer alternative to conventional nuclear fission reactors that can’t experience catastrophic meltdowns.
Even old hot dog factories are fair game as firms like Realta pursue the idea. Besides, we think that it’s only natural that Realta works on turning some old Oscar Mayer Weinermobiles into fusion-powered cars.
More on nuclear fusion: There’s a Glaring Safety Problem With Nuclear Energy Startups