Six things investors need to know about Longview
Ed Moses, CEO of Longview Fusion Energy Systems answers the questions he’s asked most and shares its unique strategies for commercial fusion and the partnerships that fuel Longview’s goals.
Why did you found Longview?
The journey to commercial fusion took a huge leap forward on December 5, 2022, when the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) demonstrated the world's first fusion experiment with energy gain—more fusion energy out than the energy required to initiate the fusion burn. No other approach has accomplished fusion burn and energy gain. This ground-breaking achievement, repeated several times since, marks the culmination of decades of work and the subsequent development of laser-driven fusion physics.
Longview is building directly on this success. Using the same laser-driven configuration proven on the NIF, Longview is moving straight to commercial power plant construction and operation. Longview is the only company that does not have to build a physics test facility, saving great cost and time, and minimizing physics and technology risk.
Our Market Entry Plant, or MEP, is planned for baseload commercial operations expected in the early 2030s. The Longview MEP will deliver 440 MW of carbon-free electricity safely and economically. The MEP design is based on the input from eight major U.S. utilities and top experts in the regulatory, technology, energy economics, and fusion science fields. We are partnering with Fluor, a leader in engineering power production facilities, ensuring that the MEP will meet the real-world demands of the market.
What makes your approach unique?
Proven Physics: Longview’s approach to fusion is unique because it is built on a foundation of proven physics and has a direct pathway to a commercial power plant. No other fusion company is based on demonstrated fusion energy gain, or possesses a facility design capable of delivering baseload commercial fusion power. Our alignment with the NIF gives us access to unparalleled research in fusion physics.
Utility-validated Power Plant Design: The MEP is based on fully integrated, self-consistent power plant design, backed by over $100 million design work that brought together key vendorsand incorporates commercial energy requirements. Longview will fast-track toward groundbreaking of a commercial fusion power plant within the next five years. Our 10-year goal is both grid-based power and a new sector for carbon-free thermochemical commodity production. Additionally, with our EPC partner Fluor we benefit from their international experience in power plant design, building and commissioning.
Technology: NIF operates at full scale in terms of laser energy, fuel target and target chamber configuration, with ignition and energy gain repeatedly demonstrated. Nevertheless, NIF uses 1990s laser technology that is inefficient. Such operating parameters are well suited to science missions but are far from the requirements for commercial fusion energy. Replacing these components with modern Diode Pumped Solid State Lasers and cost-effective fuel and target injection systems will result in accelerated deployment of a commercially viable fusion energy plant.
Team Experience: Our leadership team includes visionaries behind the National Ignition Facility and has managed multi-billion dollar high-tech projects across the U.S. and abroad, bringing experience that’s vital to making fusion commercially viable.
Global Market Penetration: Longview is embedded in the international fusion and industrial communities, giving us access to a highly skilled workforce, key facilities, and technological capabilities that keeps our business advancing rapidly and efficiently. Ultimately, Longview’s unique selling proposition (USP) is our ability to be the first to market with a baseload fusion system that is modular, economical, safe, and capable of producing reliable thermal and electrical power. The total addressable market (TAM) for this technology is immense, spanning multiple industries and representing a multi-trillion-dollar opportunity.
How is Longview backed financially?
Longview Fusion Energy Systems, Inc. has actively advanced its fusion energy program through an aggressive funding and commercialization strategy. With more than $100 million invested in our foundational technology development, we have secured initial seed funding to progress to plant configuration and design. Additionally, Fluor has been integrated into our commercializing efforts to realize the design of our Market Entry Plant (MEP). We are also in active negotiations with venture and equity funds to secure the resources that ensure we achieve groundbreaking for the MEP within the next five years.
Longview is driving forward with several commercial partnerships by specifically working closely with utilities, industrial users, and our manufacturing/supply chain base to solidify resources. By leveraging these collaborations, we’re fast-tracking the deployment of key technologies—laser systems, fuel systems, and fusion chambers—necessary for both our Market Entry Plant and "Nth of a kind" energy facilities. Unlike magnetic confinement and other fusion technologies, our proven physics and demonstrated energy gain allow us to bypass multibillion dollar physics test stages required to prove and validate the technologies. In addition to the commercial strategies, we are collaborating with the Department of Energy and the National Lab network to fine-tune selective aspects of our fusion energy system. We have an active Cooperative Research and Development Activity (CRADA) with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and NIF and are pursuing similar partnerships with other DOE National Laboratories. This comprehensive approach provides us with resources to groundbreaking within five years and a power production plant within the decade.
What are your key strategic partnerships?
Longview’s journey to bring fusion to the grid relies on a robust network of strategic partnerships, each contributing specialized expertise to this groundbreaking project. Our partnerships span several critical technology centers, each bringing world-class knowledge and facilities to our team. Savannah River National Laboratory provides expertise in tritium handling, a key element in fusion reactions, while Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, home to the NIF, supports us with their expertise in fusion physics, laser technology, and target development. Oak Ridge National Laboratory offers advanced materials science to ensure our fusion engines are durable and efficient. General Atomics is contributing expertise in target manufacturing and injection—a crucial step in the fusion process.
Our collaboration with Fluor Corporation is pivotal in advancing the plant design and integration. As a globally renowned engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) firm, Fluor is leading the design and assembly of the Market Entry Plant, bringing their extensive experience in large-scale, high-tech energy projects.
Beyond technology and design, we are engaging key players in related sectors including laser and optics, engine design, and energy economics. These partners are essential not only to the development of the fusion plant itself but also to maximizing its utility across industries. We’re working closely with industries that plan to harness our carbon-free energy for electricity production and to decarbonize essential commodities, including hydrogen, ammonia, synthetic fuels, and desalinated water.
Longview’s legal and regulatory navigation is supported by trusted advisors at Pillsbury, and Bates White will guide us on energy economics, helping to ensure our plant’s feasibility in the broader energy market. Through this network of partnerships, Longview is assembling an unprecedented team equipped to make commercial fusion a reality.
What’s your history with fusion?
My journey with lasers began in a seemingly small moment during my first year of college when I saw my first laser with a single, vivid red dot projected on the wall across an auditorium. It captivated me and sent me on my lifelong work with lasers and laser light, applications, and futuristic possibilities. In the mid-1970’s, in graduate school at Cornell, I worked on color-agile picosecond laser light sources. These sources opened the door to new types of spectroscopies, pushing the boundaries of what lasers could reveal in science and technology.
In the 1980s, I joined Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where my focus expanded. Using very high average power lasers we developed methods to do isotopic enrichment of fission fuel. I also was exposed to the rapidly growing laser inertial confinement fusion. This dual approach working on groundbreaking high-average power and high-energy lasers that would shape my career in fusion.
By the mid-1990s, my path was firmly intertwined with fusion. I began working on the NIF project, eventually becoming its Project Manager in 1999. My role evolved to oversee laser activities at LLNL, leading the design, construction, commissioning, and eventual operation of the NIF. In 2009, the NIF became operational, and by 2012, it was operating at full performance, and capable of pursuing its core mission, including the nameplate FUSION Ignition. This was the groundwork for the fusion gain experiments done in 2021.
During that time, our team also developed the Laser Inertial Fusion Energy (LIFE) program, partnering with major U.S. utilities, regulatory bodies, and technology companies to design a commercial fusion power plant. This work underscored the potential for fusion as a clean energy source and structured a path for its future commercialization.
In 2013, I stepped away from LLNL to become President of the Giant Magellan Telescope project in Chile, yet my commitment to fusion never waned. Over the next several years, I stayed connected to fusion developments, consulting for both public and private entities across the field.
In 2020, convinced that NIF was on the verge of achieving energy gain, I founded Longview Fusion Energy Systems to bring fusion to the commercial stage by the early 2030s.
How did you come to work on this approach?
My work on this approach to fusion, using laser inertial confinement, is the culmination of decades of research, dedication, and a remarkable history in laser technology. My involvement began 25 years ago as the leader of the NIF and the national inertial confinement fusion program. It was here, along with an incredible team, that brought fusion energy’s first true proof of gain. This was grounded in a lineage of laser innovation dating back to 1960, when Ted Maiman at Hughes Aircraft in Malibu demonstrated the first laser, followed quickly by John Nuckolls at Livermore envisioning laser inertial confinement fusion. This concept, imagining that lasers could compress and heat a fuel pellet to achieve fusion, became a guiding light in the field.
Over time, there have been many experimental approaches to fusion—such as magnetic confinement, z-pinches, and field-reversed configurations—but only laser-driven fusion achieved energy gain at NIF. Longview’s approach is rooted in that success, founded on proven physics and technology solutions. By leveraging the expertise of the team that achieved energy gain at NIF, Longview avoids high risk physics exploration and will move directly toward commercial mass production.
The goal at Longview is to take fusion from the laboratory to the marketplace, using an approach that is practical, proven, and repeatable. It’s a vision born from decades of dedication and discovery, and I am honored to be part of a team that’s making it a reality.