The company claims their nuclear transmutation process can create gold in three days, with a 1-megawatt fusion reactor capable of producing 5 tons of gold annually as a byproduct. The Financial Times reported that adding gold sales as a revenue stream could make fusion power profitable even at lower electricity prices, potentially opening markets previously considered economically unviable.

What is Nuclear Fusion? Understanding the Mechanism and Current Progress

Nuclear fusion is the phenomenon where light atomic nuclei merge to form heavier nuclei, releasing enormous energy – the same principle that powers the sun and stars. This is why it’s called an “artificial sun” or “sun on Earth.”

Basic Principles and Fuel of Nuclear Fusion

Plasma Confinement Methods

Progress in Energy Gain

Mechanism of Mercury to Gold Transmutation

To produce gold (atomic number 79) from mercury (atomic number 80), one proton must be removed from the mercury nucleus. Marathon Fusion’s announcement suggests using high-energy neutrons from fusion reactions to change atomic numbers through reactions like (n,p).

The “Three Walls” to Fusion Power Commercialization

1. Technical Challenges: Extreme Difficulty of Plasma Control

2. Enormous Construction and Development Costs

3. Human Resource Development Challenge

Japan faces a severe shortage of fusion specialists, with Japanese staff comprising only about 3% of ITER personnel. Declining university fusion research programs and doctoral enrollment rates pose additional challenges.

Cost and Return of Gold Production

The Problem of Radioactive Impurities in Produced Gold

Japan’s Nuclear Transmutation Research Developments

Cold Fusion and Palladium Membrane Transmutation

Other Research Institution Initiatives

Nuclear Transmutation for Radioactive Waste Resource Recovery

Recovery and Reuse of Valuable Elements

Valuable elements in high-level radioactive waste:

• Palladium: Automotive catalytic converters (clearance level: ~3,000 becquerels/gram)
• Zirconium: Reactor materials, ceramics

International Fusion Development Trends and Japan’s Strategy

Fusion Energy Advantages and Disadvantages

Conclusion: Possibilities and Limitations of Modern Alchemy

While the announcement of gold production through fusion is attention-grabbing, its realization faces the major hurdle of commercializing fusion power itself. Marathon Fusion’s claimed 5-ton annual gold production, though technically interesting, appears unrealistic for these reasons:

Fusion energy and nuclear transmutation represent technologies that could realize humanity’s fundamental dreams of “infinite energy” and “infinite resources.” While these technologies still face many difficult hurdles, steady progress is evident in:

• High-temperature plasma control technology improvements
• Extreme environment material development
• Tritium fuel cycle system establishment
• Remote maintenance technology evolution
• Accelerating private investment (over $8 billion)
• Deepening international cooperation

Just as ancient alchemists’ dreams of creating gold are now being scientifically explored through mercury-to-gold fusion alchemy, scientific progress has consistently presented possibilities beyond human imagination. The combination of fusion energy and nuclear transmutation technologies, complementing each other’s challenges, offers hope for a “brilliant future” of sustainable energy and resource circulation.

This represents not merely technical progress but transformative changes for the global environment, economic structures, and society as a whole. The world watches with bated breath for these “modern alchemy” technologies to become reality.