Nuclear reactors generating enough electricity to power just 2.5 million homes will also be capable of producing 5,000 kilograms of gold per year, according to scientists at Marathon Fusion, a California-based start-up.
The company’s findings are published in a scientific study on the process. They are seen as sufficiently credible to generate reports in titles including The Times and Financial Times, but have not been peer-reviewed.
Introducing its research, Marathon Fusion says it has found a “solution to the millennia-old grand challenge of alchemy: the transmutation of gold”.
“Unlike previous attempts, our method is massively scalable, pragmatically achievable, and economically irresistible,” it adds.
Marathon Fusion was founded by Adam Rutkowski, previously a Propulsion Engineer at SpaceX and PhD candidate in Plasma Physics at Princeton University, and Kyle Schiller, previously a Fellow in science policy at Schmidt Futures.
The science is complex, but the reported process effectively converts base metal mercury ($50 to $150 per ounce) to gold ($3,400 per ounce) as a bi-product of the nuclear fusion reaction used to generate electricity.
Nuclear power stations have fallen out of fashion since disasters like the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
New safety standards coupled with political ambivalence based on public distrust have both increased costs and driven up complexity for any proposed new nuclear power project in most of the Western world.
The Marathon Fusion research suggests any new nuclear fusion-based power plant could double its potential income if it was selling electricity as well as gold.
“Marathon’s techno-economic modelling suggests that fusion plants could create as much economic value from gold production as they do from electricity production, potentially doubling the value of these facilities, radically transforming the economics of fusion and of energy more broadly. We aim to leverage this advance alongside policy and investment to accelerate large-scale deployment of fusion energy,” the company suggests.
There is one kicker, which may be of some comfort to watchmakers and jewelers who would prefer not to see fusion gold disrupt the market in the same way as lab-grown diamonds.
Marathon admits that gold produced by the reaction, while stable, could contain some radioactive isotopes, potentially meaning it must be stored for up to 18 years before finding its way into a new Day-Date or Royal Oak.
The maths on nuclear plants being able to double their income by producing gold also looks questionable.
A reactor powering 2.5 million homes and producing 5,000 kilograms of gold would generate only $17 million per year from the precious metal.
If all 28 million homes in the UK were, hypothetically, using electricity from this type of plant today, we would require 11.2 of them, which would generate revenue from gold of just $190 million per year.
According to EDF energy, each UK home currently spends an average of £933 per year on electricity, so a total of £26 billion ($33 billion) is spent on electricity in this country annually.