[{"content":"A few weeks ago the Fusion Industry Association put out its 2026 supply chain report, launched at the first-ever fusion supply chain trade show in New Mexico. The headline numbers: fusion companies spent $538 million with suppliers in 2025, up 24%, and project $681 million this year. Three quarters of surveyed suppliers invested in expanding fusion capacity in 2025, anywhere from $30k tooling upgrades to $65 million facilities.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s real money moving through a supply chain most people don\u0026rsquo;t know exists. So I tried to map it.\nClick around. Each box is a link in the chain, and the ones with meters show how many fusion companies told the FIA that segment is a constraint.\nRaw materials Lithium \u0026amp; enrichment HTS tape (REBCO) Tungsten \u0026amp; specialty metals Helium \u0026amp; cryogens Components \u0026amp; systems Superconducting magnets Power systems \u0026amp; electronics Heat management Vacuum vessels \u0026amp; pumps First wall \u0026amp; blanket Fuel cycle systems Lasers, drivers \u0026amp; heating Diagnostics \u0026amp; controls Plant \u0026amp; integration Engineering \u0026amp; construction Pilot plants What stands out The bottlenecks aren\u0026rsquo;t where I expected. The exotic stuff (superconducting tape, tungsten) is scaling. What\u0026rsquo;s binding right now is almost boring: power electronics (48% of companies constrained), heat management (44%), vacuum vessels and pumps (32% each). Fusion is competing for switchgear and converters against grid upgrades, data centers, and EVs, and it\u0026rsquo;s the smallest customer at the table.\nBut the number that actually matters is the forward-looking one: 48% of fusion companies named fuel cycle systems as their biggest future concern. Which brings me to a conversation I keep thinking about.\nFuel is a business model When I spoke with David Bryon at First Light Fusion, the thing that stuck with me was how far ahead they are on breeding, and what that\u0026rsquo;s worth. In February, First Light validated a tritium breeding ratio of 1.8 for their FLARE concept, the highest reported to date, using a liquid bath of plain natural lithium. At the design point, one plant would generate a 25 kg annual tritium surplus.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s why that\u0026rsquo;s wild. The world\u0026rsquo;s civilian tritium inventory is about 20 kg, essentially all of it a byproduct of CANDU fission reactors (mostly in Canada), and it sells for $30,000 to $40,000 a gram. Run the naive math on a 25 kg surplus at today\u0026rsquo;s prices and one plant\u0026rsquo;s fuel byproduct is worth $750 million to $1 billion a year. Every other fusion company that reaches commercial scale needs startup tritium from somewhere.\nObviously the naive math is naive: if breeding works at scale, the price collapses. That\u0026rsquo;s the point. But in the window where most of the industry needs tritium and almost nobody has surplus, making fuel isn\u0026rsquo;t a subsystem. It\u0026rsquo;s its own business, the way enriched uranium became its own industry decades before anyone called it a supply chain.\nThe FIA report\u0026rsquo;s framing is that the \u0026ldquo;chicken and egg\u0026rdquo; gridlock between fusion companies and suppliers is finally easing. My takeaway is slightly different: the chain is filling in from both ends, with materials suppliers pivoting in from other industries and EPC firms circling from nuclear. The fuel cycle is the gap in the middle where a company could still build a moat.\nSources: FIA 2026 Fusion Industry Supply Chain Report · World Nuclear News coverage · First Light Fusion FLARE announcement · Science on the tritium supply problem\n","permalink":"https://nashboykin.com/posts/fusion-supply-chain-map/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eA few weeks ago the Fusion Industry Association put out its \u003ca href=\"https://www.fusionindustryassociation.org/fia-launches-2026-fusion-industry-supply-chain-report/\"\u003e2026 supply chain report\u003c/a\u003e, launched at the first-ever fusion supply chain trade show in New Mexico. The headline numbers: fusion companies spent $538 million with suppliers in 2025, up 24%, and project $681 million this year. Three quarters of surveyed suppliers invested in expanding fusion capacity in 2025, anywhere from $30k tooling upgrades to $65 million facilities.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat\u0026rsquo;s real money moving through a supply chain most people don\u0026rsquo;t know exists. So I tried to map it.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Mapping the Fusion Supply Chain"},{"content":"Amit Singh, CEO of NearStar Fusion, recently took the time to walk me through the world of inertial fusion versus magnetic fusion. At one point I told him that the last person I\u0026rsquo;d told about wanting to work in fusion had laughed at me. He didn\u0026rsquo;t laugh. Instead, he talked about working for a purpose, not a salary. That\u0026rsquo;s stuck with me since, and it\u0026rsquo;s got me thinking back on how I actually landed here in the first place.\nTwo semesters before graduating, I realized I needed more graduate-level courses to hit the requirements for the +1 program. So when I was scrolling through options and found Dr. Chris Wedding\u0026rsquo;s Fuqua course on ESG investing, I actually got pretty excited.\nI had considered writing my honors thesis on ESG investing. I\u0026rsquo;d been part of Duke Impact Investing. I\u0026rsquo;d dabbled in the finance world during my summer abroad in London. But I was always confident I\u0026rsquo;d end up pursuing a PhD in economics. I didn\u0026rsquo;t have corporate experience, I didn\u0026rsquo;t know the finance lingo, and I certainly lacked Excel expertise. I figured I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t exactly fit right in — but the class covered a topic I was genuinely interested in, so I signed up.\nExactly one semester later, I was applying to Fuqua\u0026rsquo;s Master in Business, Climate, and Sustainability program\u0026rsquo;s inaugural class. I\u0026rsquo;d chosen a 180-degree pivot away from the PhD track and onto a new path that would get a lot more people laughing at me: fusion.\nDr. Wedding\u0026rsquo;s class wasn\u0026rsquo;t just about fusion. It covered everything from geothermal energy to insuring coconuts in Indonesia. But it did reinstate an idea in my mind: economics isn\u0026rsquo;t just abstract models and difficult proofs. It can also be about improving the world around you.\nThen a guest speaker mentioned that the next big thing would be fusion. I went home, did my research, and was hooked. The physics still gets me: plasma sustains itself with its own heat, and the breeding blanket regenerates fuel to keep the whole process going. And at the end of it: potentially limitless clean energy.\nMy master\u0026rsquo;s program orientation is in three days. In the meantime, I\u0026rsquo;ve been trying to learn everything I can about the fusion industry, meeting people I never would have dreamed would take the time to speak with me. Every conversation leaves me more convinced this is where I want to be.\nYes, fusion is probably not happening tomorrow. Yes, I made this pivot with one semester left in school. Yes, I don\u0026rsquo;t have the corporate experience, and I don\u0026rsquo;t get every acronym the finance world throws at me. But I am passionate, and I hope to show that through these short posts and the projects and people I share here.\n","permalink":"https://nashboykin.com/posts/welcome/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAmit Singh, CEO of NearStar Fusion, recently took the time to walk me through the world of inertial fusion versus magnetic fusion. At one point I told him that the last person I\u0026rsquo;d told about wanting to work in fusion had laughed at me. He didn\u0026rsquo;t laugh. Instead, he talked about working for a purpose, not a salary. That\u0026rsquo;s stuck with me since, and it\u0026rsquo;s got me thinking back on how I actually landed here in the first place.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"How It All Started"},{"content":" Hi, I\u0026rsquo;m Nash. I just graduated from Duke with degrees in economics and computer science, and I\u0026rsquo;m sticking around Durham for a joint master\u0026rsquo;s at Fuqua and the Nicholas School, at the intersection of business, climate, and sustainability. I also spend a good amount of my free time thinking about fusion energy.\nStars on Earth is where I keep track of two things:\nConversations. What I\u0026rsquo;ve learned from the people building this industry, one call at a time. Analysis. LCOE models, supply chain breakdowns, and other projects digging into the economics of fusion. The name is a nod to what a fusion reactor actually is: a star, held together on Earth.\nSay hello: LinkedIn cnb45@duke.edu Resume ","permalink":"https://nashboykin.com/about/","summary":"About Nash Boykin and Stars on Earth","title":"About"}]