In December 2022, scientists at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California caused a media sensation when it was announced that in their fusion experiments, they had apparently produced for the first time a so-called burning plasma, i.e., a state in which the energy put into the plasma is compensated by the heat of the helium nuclei produced during fusion. Specifically, they released 3.15 megajoules of fusion energy from a pellet filled with the hydrogen isotopes deuterium (D) and tritium (T), while the laser's energy consumption was only 2.05 megajoules – unquestionably a huge step for the future of nuclear fusion energy production! Earlier in 2022, researchers at the JET Laboratory in the United Kingdom had already made news when they broke their own world record for the amount of energy generated by nuclear fusion: about 59 megajoules of energy for five seconds. These two research results alone speak a clear language: nuclear fusion research is developing rapidly, and nuclear fusion holds huge potential as a safe and sustainable energy source of the future!

Various technological approaches to get the nuclear fusion started have turned out to be promising candidates for the fusion reactors of the future. Thus, the dream of a fusion reactor that continuously generates more energy than it consumes is moving closer, step by step. Of course, there is still a very long way to go: optimistic estimates suggest that the first commercial reactors will not be available until around mid-century at the earliest. Nevertheless, the field has broadened, and more and more players are entering the nuclear fusion playground. For example, in addition to large-scale research projects such as ITER, JET or NIF, more than 30 privately financed companies around the world have now specialized in fusion concepts with commercial potential. Whether research institutes or young start-ups, many of them use valve technology from VAT to build their fusion devices, from customized one-offs to complete valve portfolios.