Laser fusion: Focused Energy charts a course to commercial viability

This episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast features a conversation with the plasma physicist Debbie Callahan who is chief strategy officer at Focused Energy – a California and Germany based fusion-energy startup. Prior to that she spent 35 years working at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US. Focused Energy is developing a commercial system for generating energy from the laser-driven fusion of hydrogen isotopes. Callahan describes LightHouse, which is the company’s design for a laser-fusion power plant, and Pearl, which is the firm’s deuterium–tritium fuel capsule. Callahan talks about the challenges and rewards of working in the fusion industry and also calls on early-career physicists to consider careers in this burgeoning sector.

You can listen to Laser fusion: Focused Energy charts a course to commercial viability online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Laser fusion: Focused Energy charts a course to commercial viability is an episode from Physics World Weekly Podcast by Physics World.

This episode is 32:35 long.

This episode was published on Jan 22, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Physics World Weekly Podcast when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.