Fusion Holds Near a Third of the Grid as Demand Climbs With the Heat

GENEVA — The reconnected grid drew just under a third of its power from fusion this week, roughly 30 percent, and grid operators want that number read honestly. The baseload reactor Aurora Fusion Works brought online in August — synced the previous month, a week's testing before it carried load — added real capacity, but almost none of it reached households as slack. "Every megawatt we added, the heat took," said Aurora chief executive Emeka Okonkwo, reviewing dispatch logs at the firm's Geneva control room. Cooling demand across the warm belt has risen faster than new supply, so a grid that is 30 percent fusion feels no roomier than one that was 28. The Alpine Geneva Polytechnic, which audits reactor uptime, confirmed the new unit is running within its commissioning envelope. Okonkwo declined to promise the figure would climb by winter. "We are not losing ground," he said. "In this century that is the achievement."