Grid Holds Near 30 Percent Fusion as the Heat Dome Slackens

The reconnected grid closed July drawing close to 30 percent of its power from commercial fusion, holding through the last of the heat dome without the rolling curtailments that shadowed the peak weeks, grid operators reported Wednesday. The margin was thin but it held: twelve billion people leaned on cooling load through the hottest fortnight, and fusion's steady baseload — rather than the spot-price gas that once filled such gaps — carried the difference. "We did not break, and last summer we would have," said one dispatcher at a southern-European control room, who logged forty-one consecutive hours on the desk during the peak. Aurora Fusion Works, the sector's chief builder, has said a new baseload reactor is due to sync in early August, which operators expect to nudge the fusion share past 31 percent once it settles onto the grid — but that is next month's arithmetic. For now, chief executive Emeka Okonkwo's firm let the milestone wait. "Reliability first," a plant supervisor said. "The record can come in August."