Epoch Times - Devin Nunes: Why Nuclear Fusion Is the Future of Energy
Aired: 2026-01-10
Duration: 04:51


=== Nuclear Power's Future (04:16) ===

[00:00:00]  The most important issue, you can have all the technology you want, all the AI, all the data centers, but there's a problem.
[00:00:07]  There's not enough power.
[00:00:08]  So, a lot of people ask, you know, how did you get involved in energy issues?
[00:00:14]  Well, and especially nuclear power.
[00:00:15]  So, I was early on in my career and spent a lot of time on these energy issues, especially nuclear.
[00:00:23]  So, I had actually introduced legislation. that would have allowed for the construction of an additional 200 reactors of the traditional nuclear fission, and we'll get to that reactors.
[00:00:37]  Those, of course, never got built.
[00:00:38]  Fukushima happened.
[00:00:40]  That really took the wind out of the sails of nuclear.
[00:00:44]  We looked hard at the energy sector and then kind of drawing upon my former experience being a big supporter of nuclear power.
[00:00:52]  I always thought that fusion was maybe just too far out.
[00:00:57]  But now I believe once looking at there's not very many fusion companies, but then looking at TAE where they've built five generations now of reactors, they're now ready to build six and will be the first in the world to be actually where you put in, where you get more energy out of than what you put in.
[00:01:20]  So we have, we just released plans that we're merging with TAE.
[00:01:26]  We're looking for a site.
[00:01:28]  We put out the site criteria this week that the first reactor, the commercial reactor would be about 50 megawatt, but with the second reactor that we hoped would be on the same site would be somewhere in that 350 to 500 megawatt range.
[00:01:42]  What does this mean?
[00:01:44]  To the common viewer out there that's watching this, if you think of the big nuclear fusion reactors are around 1,000.
[00:01:52]  Most of the coal or gas plants are in that 200 to 500 range.
[00:01:56]  So, you know, TAE working with us, building these reactors, obviously this has never been done before.
[00:02:04]  So it's got to, you know, there's a lot to be done.
[00:02:08]  But I call it Manhattan Project 2.0, building off of what was done in the first Manhattan project that led to atomic power.
[00:02:18]  There's nothing more important than making this work.
[00:02:21]  It's essentially clean, cheap power that everybody prospers by having clean, cheap power.
[00:02:30]  We're going the opposite direction.
[00:02:32]  So, you know, you can have all the AI, all the technology you want, but if you don't have the power, it doesn't matter.
[00:02:40]  But I do believe that nuclear fusion is the answer.
[00:02:44]  It long has been the answer.
[00:02:47]  It's just that there hasn't been a solution yet.
[00:02:50]  It's not like this is not new science.
[00:02:52]  This was known by people back during the World War II timeframe, but it's just being able to contain the plasma in order to produce the electricity.
[00:03:06]  That's been the problem.
[00:03:08]  So we're very optimistic about this technology.
[00:03:12]  And this will bring it home for you and the folks at EPOC Times, because I know you follow China closely.
[00:03:19]  People ask me, well, who are your competitors?
[00:03:21]  Is it Bill Gates?
[00:03:23]  Is it Elon Musk who wants to put solar panels in space?
[00:03:27]  That's right, up in space, right?
[00:03:29]  Solar panels in space, but data centers in space, which by the way, we're probably going to need to do that too.
[00:03:36]  People talk about having the smaller modular reactors like the ones that we have in the naval vessels.
[00:03:44]  All of that is going to be necessary, but the true breakthrough would be having these 350 to 500 megawatt plants.
[00:03:51]  So who's the competition?
[00:03:54]  The only competition in my mind for this company, for our future company, is China.
[00:04:00]  That's it.

=== Energy Independence Race (00:49) ===

[00:04:01]  The Chinese have put untold billions into this, and they know that it's now going to be possible to create, to have a nuclear fusion reactor that works.
[00:04:15]  And that's what we're up against.
[00:04:16]  We're really racing against the clock against China.
[00:04:21]  So, you know, look, I know we solved the free speech problem, and now we're moving on to solve the energy problem and make sure that our country maintains global dominance by being completely, not only being energy independent, but driving prices of energy down for the people in the United States.
[00:04:44]  That's, which I think is a, you know, it's a goal that I've had, ironically, like I said, for a long time.