It takes the average Latina, 12 extra months to earn what the average White, non-Hispanic man earns. That is because Latinas are only paid .55 cents to the dollar of […]

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It was announced earlier this month that the new tech startup Realta Fusion will partner with Madison Gas and Electric and build a nuclear fusion plant in Southern Wisconsin. Realta also announced that they would be building a fusion research facility at the old Oscar Mayer location in Madison. Fusion energy scientist Stephanie Diem and Director of the Great Lakes Fusion Energy Alliance Kathleen Gallagher joined Patrick Casey to talk about what this collaboration means for Wisconsin.

UW Madison has a 50 year fusion energy program, one of the oldest programs of this type in the world, and along with MIT, is leading the way in developing this industry. There are 90 fusion companies in the world, and nearly all of them have graduates from the UW Madison, which has graduated close to 600 students from the program. It’s rare for these companies to progress to forming a partnership with an energy company; The partnership with MG&E makes Wisconsin a possible leader in this emerging industry.

Fusion is a hydrogen based energy, and it is the process of heating light elements, such as deuterium and trivium, to a temperature ten times hotter than the sun to fuse together. Fission, in contrast, is the process of heating heavy elements until they break apart. The initial heating involves using lasers and microwaves inside magnetic bottles to maintain the hot temperature, because once the bottles are heated, they must remain at this temperature to continue the reaction. Some of the energy produced is used to continue heating up the bottles to continue reactions, while the rest of the energy can be turned into usable energy.

Stephanie Diem received her PhD in Plasma Physics from Princeton University where she studied at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Prior to joining UW-Madison, Professor Diem was a Research and Development Scientist in the Fusion Energy Division at Oak Bridge National Laboratory and spent two years at the National Fusion Facility at General Atomics in San Diego. She was a speaker at the 2022 White House Summit on Commercial Fusion Energy and co-developed the US Fusion Energy website for the United States Department of Energy.

Kathleen Gallagher is Executive Director of 5 Lakes Institute, a non-profit that works to improve the Great Lakes region’s technological and entrepreneurial landscape. 5 Lakes runs the Great Lakes Fusion Energy Alliance and the Wisconsin Fusion Energy Coalition, which was launched by WEDC in January with a $778,000 Ignite Wisconsin grant. Kathleen is also a guest columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and hosts “Midwest Moxie,” a radio show/podcast that features interviews with Midwest company founders.

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Earlier this week, the Atlanta City Council approved an addition $31 million dollars for the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. This was after more than 16 hours […]

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