Nuclear fusion companies, backed by the Trump administration, are racing to build futuristic power plants that produce what industry experts call the ultimate sustainable energy source.

Nuclear fusion creates massive amounts of energy — roughly 4 million times more than burning coal, oil or gas, and four times more energy than nuclear fission, according to the World Nuclear Association.

For decades, the technology has been hyped as a way to easily help fill the world’s energy needs, if only it could be produced outside of laboratory experiments.

Development is now progressing rapidly to bridge that gap, and nuclear fusion proponents say it is now on the verge of powering the nation’s grid, and it is backed with a lot of money and help from the government.

Current power plants use nuclear fission that splits heavy atoms to release energy. Nuclear fusion joins light atoms, creating more power with less nuclear waste.

Dozens of U.S. companies are planning to achieve grid-scale nuclear fusion in the next decade and have the support of investors and the Trump administration.

Earlier this year, Energy Secretary Chris Wright created an Office of Fusion and unveiled a comprehensive national strategy to speed up the development and commercialization of fusion energy by the middle of the next decade. The office is providing grants and pairing private companies with government researchers to advance the technology.

Fusion energy development has bipartisan support. In November, lawmakers in Congress introduced bipartisan legislation to make the new fusion office permanent.

Fusion energy would not only potentially add tremendous amounts of energy to the grid, it also produces no carbon emissions, and unlike nuclear power plants, which create energy through fission, fusion does not produce highly radioactive, long-lasting nuclear waste.

Secretary Chris Wright said he expects fusion to deliver power to electricity grids worldwide within the next eight to 15 years, thanks to research in national labs and the work of private companies backed by billions of dollars in private investment.

“Secretary Wright has made clear that investing in the science and public-private partnerships needed to turn decades of research into a clear pathway for delivering commercial fusion power to our grid is essential to advancing President Trump’s vision of unleashing American nuclear energy,” a department spokeswoman said.

One fusion startup, Denver-based Xcimer Energy, is currently shopping for a site in the United States to build a full-scale demonstration of nuclear fusion energy produced by a powerful laser beam. Company CEO Alexander Valys told The Washington Times he’s eyeing the completion of a commercial fusion energy power plant using the laser beams by 2035.

“Fusion is solar power without the middleman,” Mr. Valys said.

Fusion is the process by which two nuclei combine to form another nucleus. The fusion process powers the sun and stars and releases massive amounts of energy.

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