Realta Fusion generates electricity directly from a nuclear fusion reaction, an apparent first

Good news! Thomas Alva Edison also demonstrated with a light bulb!

"... Thanks to a groundbreaking experiment in 2022, we know that controlled nuclear fusion reactions can generate more power than they consume. ...

Realta Fusion announced that an experiment it conducted on June 19 successfully powered a lightbulb using electricity harvested directly from WHAM, its demonstration fusion device. The Wisconsin-based startup believes it is the first private company to publicly demonstrate such a feat. ..."

"On June 19th, 2026, Realta Fusion, in collaboration with our partners at the University of Wisconsin-Madison demonstrated direct energy conversion (DEC) on the Wisconsin HTS Axisymmetric Mirror (WHAM) prototype fusion device. This is the first time a commercial fusion company has demonstrated DEC applied to a fusion plasma.

DEC is the process of converting the energy of a fusion plasma manifesting in the form of moving charged particles directly into electricity – real amps of electric current flowing in circuits employed to do useful work. ..."

Realta Fusion generates electricity directly from a fusion reaction, an apparent first | TechCrunch

On June 19th, 2026, Realta Fusion became the first private fusion company in history to successfully demonstrate direct energy conversion (DEC) of plasma kinetic energy into electricity. (company blog post)

Realta Fusion’s WHAM device is built to demonstrate the magnetic mirror approach to fusion power.

WHAM device overview. Figure source: D. Endrizzi et al., Physics basis for the Wisconsin HTS Axisymmetric Mirror (WHAM)