21st Century Manhattan Project to champion America's pursuit of Fusion Energy
NEW YORK, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- With Washington incentivizing fossil and fission as strategic sources of America's power in President Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill," the future of fusion energy is being championed by the newly formed 21st Century Fusion Power – Manhattan Project in recognition that the nation which conquers this game-changing technology will dominate the remainder of this century.
Invoking the historic harnessing of America's industrial and scientific power during World War II to create atomic weapons under the code name The Manhattan Project, the new organization is committed to advocating for significant federal funds that would allow America to win the race for fusion energy.
The group's president and founder, Lawrence Kadish, stated, "Fusion energy may very well hold the key to our nation's long-term security at a time when China is investing billions of dollars to secure that prize.
Fusion energy depends on taking hydrogen out of an easily retrieved source, such as ocean water, and subjecting those hydrogen atoms to intense heat and pressure that rivals the surface of the Sun. From that heat one can create steam which, in turn, can generate clean and unlimited power without any of the dangers raised by traditional nuclear fission reactors.
A national poll underwritten by 21st Century Fusion Power – Manhattan Project revealed that a significant number of Americans are equally concerned about China's potential ownership of this technology. The survey found that nearly 40% of voters embraced the call to make fusion energy a national priority, applying all available national resources to this challenge, similar to World War II's Manhattan Project.
The national poll also found that three-in-five voters are concerned that another country, such as China, will achieve fusion power capabilities first. Faced with that threat, nearly 60% of those responding to the survey said Washington should commit the needed research dollars to successfully compete with Chinese research efforts.
The 21st Century Fusion Power – Manhattan Project effort seeks to ally itself with organizations including the Fusion Industry Association, creating a powerful and compelling voice that recognizes the enormous importance of fusion energy.
"We need to recognize that the Chinese are guarding progress on their research as if it were a top secret national security weapon. Because it is," reminded Kadish.
He notes the warning of authors Daniel F. Brunner, Edlyn V. Levine, Fiona E. Murray and Rory Burke in the most recent edition of MIT Technology Review, who wrote, "The US and other Western countries will have to build strong supply chains across a range of technologies in addition to creating the fundamental technology behind practical fusion power plants. Investing in supply chains and scaling up complex production processes has increasingly been a strength of China's and a weakness of the West, resulting in the migration of many critical industries from the West to China. With fusion, we run the risk that history will repeat itself. But it does not have to go that way." Will the West lose the race for fusion energy? | MIT Technology Review
Kadish said the newly formed organization plans to be heard in Washington where lawmakers and policy makers will ultimately determine whether the United States is the leader in fusion energy or is now at risk as China takes its place as the global superpower that has successfully harnessed the sun's energy.
SOURCE The 21st Century Fusion Power Manhattan Project
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