Skip to Content

FUSION ENERGY

In rural Malaga, Washington, Microsoft’s data centers have partnered with Helion to generate their own electricity using fusion—the same process that powers the sun. Helion is developing new fusion technology where electricity is directly recaptured, rather than heating water and turning steam turbines. To be successful, the technology needs to produce more energy than it consumes.

Recently, I worked with reporter Greg Kim to illustrate a cutaway of Helion’s unique fusion generator. Explore Helion’s fusion process in the graphic below, or read the Seattle Times story published on Sunday, April 26, 2026.

An illustration shows how Helion's fusion process works. (1) Inside Helion’s generator, a mixture of deuterium and helium-3 gases is super-heated. Magnets confine the glowing plasma into a donut shape. (2) Two donuts of plasma are slammed together at 1 million mph. They form a sphere in the center. (3) The plasma is compressed by a powerful magnetic field. The squeezing action drives the temperature to greater than 100 million degrees Celsius—seven times hotter than the core of the sun. (4) At this temperature, the deuterium and helium-3 ions in the plasma are moving so fast they overcome the forces that keep them apart, and they fuse. (5) The energy generated in the fusion process causes the plasma to expand and push back on the machine’s magnetic field, producing electricity.

What is fusion?
When two light atomic nuclei are forced to fuse together, they form a heavier nucleus, releasing an immense amount of energy in the process. This is the same reaction that powers the sun and other stars.

What is plasma?
Plasma is the fourth state of matter. When a gas is heated to a certain temperature, it can turn into plasma, a soup of charged particles. More than 99% of the visible universe is made up of plasma in the form of stars and nebulas. On earth, we see charged plasma in lighting strikes, auroras, and neon signs.

At the extreme temperatures required for fusion, all matter is plasma. In Helion’s system, powerful magnets confine the charged plasma and channel the energy released by fusion reactions into electricity.

Deuterium–helium-3 fuel
Helion’s fusion process requires two fuels: deuterium and helium-3. Deuterium, a heavy isotope of hydrogen, is commonly found on Earth in seawater. Helium-3 is rare on Earth, but thought to be abundant on the Moon. Helion generates its own helium-3 as a byproduct of the fusion reaction, which it then reuses in the next fusion reaction.

The plasma in deuterium-helium-3 fusion generally glows with a bright, intense pink or purple-white color. The color is caused by the excitation of hydrogen-like deuterium atoms in the plasma, which emit red and blue light.

Energy equation
Helion’s latest model, Polaris, requires more than 50 megajoules (MJ) of electricity per pulse to create, accelerate, and compress the plasma within the machine’s magnetic field. More than 10,000 high-voltage capacitors are stacked near the fusion generator to store the energy sent to the machine and returned from the fusion reactions. Helion’s goal is to demonstrate the ability to recover more electricity than is consumed.

Featured

HOW FORESTS CAPTURE CARBON
Illustration: Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air and turn it into sugars, using the food to grow. This process, called photosynthesis, allows plants to make their own food, storing the carbon in their tissues as they grow roots, branches and leaves. In this way, forests help fight climate change by absorbing and storing carbon pollution that is heating the planet. Big trees store the most carbon because of their mass, and long-lived species such as Douglas fir and red cedar can lock carbon away for centuries. Trees absorb carbon dioxide gas through openings in leaves or needles called stomata. Chloroplasts within leaves and needles use the energy of the sun to split water molecules drawn up through tree roots into hydrogen and oxygen, released through their stomata. Trees and other green plants create the air we breathe, and shelter and nourish life as we know it.
HOW FORESTS CAPTURE CARBON
PINK SALMON BOOM
PINK SALMON BOOM
ICE ARRESTS BY SEATTLE FIELD OFFICE
Multi-chart graphic showing that several northwest counties and municipalities saw a sharp increase in ICE arrests following the start of President Trump's second term, including King, Clark, Whatcom, and Yakima Counties in Washington; Multnomah, Marion, and Washington Counties in Oregon, and Anchorage municipality.
ICE ARRESTS BY SEATTLE FIELD OFFICE
WHO ARE THE ZIZIANS?
WHO ARE THE ZIZIANS?