Fusion Forward

Alex Borovskis

Fusion Forward is a podcast hosted by Alex Borovskis of Helixos (helixos.co) that dives into the future of fusion energy through engaging and insightful conversations with the people shaping the field. Each episode features an interview with a guest - whether a scientist, engineer, policymaker, investor, or thought leader - exploring their journey into fusion and unpacking key ideas across science, technology, economics, and politics.

Episodes

  1. 20 Oct

    Inside K-STAR and Korea's Fusion Industrial Base with Jin Wu Kim

    Korea went from one of the poorest countries in the world, with GDP per capita under $100 in 1960, to a nation that builds the world's ships, chips, and nuclear reactors. Now it's positioning itself to do the same for fusion. In this episode of Fusion Forward, we sit down with Jin Wu Kim of Enable Fusion, Korea's flagship fusion supply chain startup, to trace how Korea's unique industrial model, built on state-directed conglomerates, or chaebols, like Samsung, SK, Hyundai, and LG,  is now being applied to one of the hardest engineering problems in the world. We cover: Korea's industrial origin story: colonization, the Korean War, and a 50-year transformation into one of the world's most advanced economies The chaebol model, how top-down government coordination and a handful of family-run conglomerates built Korea's shipbuilding, semiconductor, and nuclear fission industries The founding of K-STAR in 1995, first plasma in 2008, and 17+ years of continuous operation that's built a 200-250 company deep fusion supply chain inside Korea What Korea's shipbuilding, semiconductor, and nuclear fission expertise directly transfers to fusion components, and what doesn't The geopolitical tension between global collaboration (the semiconductor model) and supply chain protectionism, and what that means for a resource-poor country like Korea Why energy independence is, in Jin Wu's view, the single biggest determinant of Korea's next decade Whether you're tracking the global fusion supply chain, curious about industrial policy, or want to understand why a country of 50 million people is becoming indispensable to commercial fusion, this conversation connects Korea's 70-year industrial story directly to what it will take to build the first fusion power plants.  About the Guest Jin Wu Kim is the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Commercial Officer at Enable Fusion, Korea's flagship fusion supply chain startup, which focuses on precision manufacturing and component delivery for fusion reactor developers rather than reactor design itself. Enable Fusion was co-founded by Dr. GS Lee, a foundational figure in Korean fusion who helped launch the country's fusion program in 1995 and has been closely involved with K-STAR and ITER ever since.

    Inside K-STAR and Korea's Fusion Industrial Base with Jin Wu Kim

  2. 20 Aug

    The Superconductor Bottleneck Standing Between Us and Commercial Fusion

    High-temperature superconductors (HTS) are looking like they will become one of the most important materials in the energy transition. In this episode of Fusion Forward, we sit down with Sergey Samoilenkov, Director of Strategy and Business Development at Faraday Factory Japan, to trace the story of HTS from the pioneering experiments conducted at IBM’s Zurich laboratory in the 1980s to its role as a critical input for commercial fusion today. We cover: The 1986 discovery that broke the "rules" of superconductivity and the Nobel Prize that followed Why HTS wire production has grown roughly 10x every five to seven years, and what that means for the 2030s How fusion companies like Commonwealth Fusion Systems helped turn HTS demand into a real global market How HTS could cut copper and rare-earth demand by a factor of 10 or more in cables, magnets, and transformers Applications beyond fusion from MRI machines and mining to electric aviation and superconducting magnets already in space What Sergey expects over the next decade, including some applications nobody is talking about yet If you want to understand why this ceramic might reshape how we generate and move electricity, then this conversation is an intro to a technology that's been 30 years in the making and is only now hitting its stride. About the Guest Sergey Samoilenkov is Director of Strategy and Business Development at Faraday Factory Japan, a leading manufacturer of high-temperature superconducting wire. He has worked in the superconductivity field since his university years, spanning experimental research in the 1990s through the commercialization of early HTS wire products in the 2000s. Today he works at the intersection of HTS materials science and the industries that depend on them.

  3. 20 Jul

    Why Fusion Can't Afford to Repeat Clean Energy's Deployment Mistakes

    What does it actually take to get fusion from the lab to the grid, and who's thinking about deployment before the tech is even ready? In this episode, Alex Borovskis sits down with Dr. Guinevere Shaw to explore the commercial and investment realities facing the fusion industry. With over six years at the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science Fusion Energy Sciences, where she oversaw the Fusion Nuclear Science and Enabling R&D portfolio, Guinevere brings a rare perspective that bridges deep technical expertise with the strategic and financial demands of commercialization. They discuss why deployment is where promising energy technologies can die, what a bankable fusion project actually needs to demonstrate, how fusion companies should be thinking about market environments now (not just when their tech is ready), and why fusion's regulatory context may be one of its most underappreciated advantages. About the Guest Dr. Guinevere Shaw is a Managing Director and Partner at Rutherford Energy Ventures LP (REV), where she leads government relations and strategic engagement at the intersection of fusion energy, policy, and investment. Before joining REV, she spent over six years at the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science Fusion Energy Sciences, serving as Program Manager for Fusion Nuclear Science and Enabling Technology, overseeing the portfolio of R&D needed to bridge the gap between plasma science and a working demonstration plant. She holds a PhD and began her research career studying fusion materials at the University of Tennessee. Guinevere now works with industry leaders and policymakers to unlock the commercial potential of fusion energy.

    Why Fusion Can't Afford to Repeat Clean Energy's Deployment Mistakes

  4. 22 May

    Measuring Progress: The Story Behind Fusion’s March to Breakeven

    In this episode, Sam Wurzel discusses his career journey from plasma physics to co-founding the electronic component search engine Octopart, and his eventual return to the fusion industry to develop better methods for measuring scientific progress. Wurzel details the approach to a peer-reviewed paper that analyzes decades of fusion experiments against the Lawson criteria, utilizing the "triple product" - ion temperature, density, and energy confinement time - as a unified metric for tracking incremental progress toward net energy gain.  The discussion highlights how this transparency has helped investors allocate capital more effectively, inspired students to join the field, and encouraged fusion companies to share more scientific data. Looking forward, Wurzel introduces Fusion Energy Base, a comprehensive digital clearinghouse designed to accelerate the ecosystem through a company database, jobs board, and interactive simulators. https://www.fusionenergybase.com Links to papers:  https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0083990 https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0297357 About the guest Sam Wurzel is the founder of Fusion Energy Base, a website dedicated to providing comprehensive information on organizations advancing fusion energy and its supply chain. From 2021 to 2024, Sam served as a Technology-to-Market Advisor at ARPA-E and co-lead of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fusion Crosscut Team, where he facilitated the commercialization of ARPA-E-funded projects and contributed to the development of the Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program. Prior to this, he co-founded and served as CEO of Octopart, a search engine for electronic components. Sam studied experimental plasma physics in graduate school at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

    Measuring Progress: The Story Behind Fusion’s March to Breakeven

  5. 3 Feb

    The U.S. Fusion Evolution from Science to Commercialization

    Fusion energy is moving from science to commercialization faster than ever. In this episode of Fusion Forward, Alex speaks with Scott Hsu, fusion scientist, former U.S. DOE Lead Fusion Coordinator, and now investor at Lowercarbon Capital, about the key milestones that shaped fusion’s progress, from early plasma physics breakthroughs to the rise of private fusion companies and modern policy programs like the DOE Milestone Program. Scott shares what it takes to shift national strategy, why public-private partnerships matter, and what he expects to see in the next five years as fusion races toward Q>1 and pilot plants in the 2030s. About the guest Scott Hsu is a fusion scientist, former Fusion Lead at U.S. Department of Energy, and current venture capital investor focused on fusion commercialization. Scott is now at Lowercarbon Capital, where he works with the firm’s dedicated fusion fund, Q>1, investing in leading fusion companies. He previously served at ARPA-E where he funded nearly 50 R&D projects to accelerate fusion energy, and later became DOE’s Lead Fusion Coordinator, helping shape national strategy around industry-led fusion pilot plants and public-private partnerships.

  6. 14/10/2025

    From Hype to Hard Numbers: On the Business of Fusion feat. FusionX

    Investors are pouring money into fusion at record speed, but which technologies, and which companies, will still be standing when the first commercial plant switches on? In this episode, finance industry specialist Stuart Allen breaks down the economics behind the plasma: how valuations are set, where supply-chain bottlenecks hide, and why the entire fusion ecosystem is poised for rapid growth. About the guest Stuart Allen is the co-founder and CEO of FusionX Group, which seeks to facilitate the efficient allocation of capital to fusion and the fusion supply chain. Through their news and data platform, FusionX informs the full spectrum of fusion market participants – fusion companies, supply chain, investors, advisers, and public-sector allies. With their series of FusionXInvest meetings, they connect fusion innovators, investors and partners with opportunity in fusion energy, propulsion, and spin-off applications including medical isotopes, remote imaging, and applied superconductivity.

    From Hype to Hard Numbers: On the Business of Fusion feat. FusionX

  7. 12/08/2025

    Advanced Fuels, Compact Reactors & Fusion 2.0

    “People call it the holy grail, but I think humanity will be working on fusion for the rest of humanity.” Recording at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, fusion scientist Ahmed Diallo lays out the roadmap he calls “Fusion 2.0.” Ahmed explains why advanced fuels, high-field magnets, and clever energy-recovery schemes are reshaping what a commercial plant could look like. About the guest Ahmed Diallo is a plasma physicist at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and Fusion Program Director at ARPA-E. His current research spans fuel-cycle engineering, high-heat-flux materials, and advanced-fuel concepts. He also serves as an advisor to start-ups working to bridge the gap between lab demos and commercial fusion plants.

  8. 22/07/2025

    Unlocking the Fuel of the Future: on Tritium & the Fusion Fuel Cycle

    Tritium may not be all that scarce (Canada’s CANDU reactors alone have produced kilograms of it over the years), but keeping a steady, reactor-grade supply is still a major engineering challenge. In this conversation, Ian Castillo, Co-CEO of Fusion Fuel Cycles, details how the upcoming UNITY-2 testbed will demonstrate the world’s first integrated, commercially relevant fusion fuel cycle. Along the way, he explains why “tritium is the fuel” for today’s machines, how “the breeder really acts as a tritium multiplier,” and what it will take to close the fuel cycle gap between prototypes and commercial fusion power. About the guest Ian Castillo leads tritium systems at Fusion Fuel Cycles, where his team is building UNITY-2 to demonstrate the viability of a truly closed tritium loop. He began his career at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, gaining foundational experience in nuclear technology.

    Unlocking the Fuel of the Future: on Tritium & the Fusion Fuel Cycle

  9. 18/06/2025

    Oak Ridge and the Plasma Flamethrower

    Dr. Troy Carter joins us to share his journey into fusion energy, the activities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the cutting-edge MPEX system. We explore how MPEX will test materials for future fusion reactors under extreme plasma conditions and why it’s key to making fusion power a reality. About the guest Troy Carter was named Director of the Fusion Energy Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Troy oversees the division’s world-class technical capabilities in plasma physics, fusion materials, and fusion technologies. He is responsible for developing major projects such as the Materials Plasma Exposure eXperiment, or MPEX, and ORNL’s research contributions to the international ITER experiment.

  • 9 Episodes

About

Fusion Forward is a podcast hosted by Alex Borovskis of Helixos (helixos.co) that dives into the future of fusion energy through engaging and insightful conversations with the people shaping the field. Each episode features an interview with a guest - whether a scientist, engineer, policymaker, investor, or thought leader - exploring their journey into fusion and unpacking key ideas across science, technology, economics, and politics.

Information

  • Creator
    Alex Borovskis
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    9
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Alex Borovskis
  • Show Website
    Fusion Forward

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