近距离内射合集

There鈥檚 a night-and-day difference between nuclear fusion and nuclear fission, and part of Matthew Pahl鈥檚 job is explaining what that is.

Pahl is among those leading Pacific Fusion鈥檚 efforts in New Mexico to make fusion energy a commercial reality.

A former Gallup teacher who has worked for the state Public Education Department and the Legislature, Pahl is now the external relations lead in New Mexico for the California-based company.

He鈥檚 the guy who will work with colleges to train a 鈥渢echnician pipeline,鈥� seek out talent at job fairs, work with lawmakers and state officials, and generally be the public face of the 3-year-old company.

While traditional nuclear power (fission) splits atoms, fusion combines them and creates massive amounts of energy in a process that powers the galaxy鈥檚 sun and stars.

Yet no one has been able to use that process to produce electricity in a way that makes commercial sense.

Pacific Fusion鈥檚 goal is to do that by the mid-2030s. The company late last year opened a manufacturing site in Los Lunas, while it is readying an even larger, $1 billion operation at Mesa del Sol to build its first demonstration system. The incentives it has received to locate here: $776.6 million in industrial revenue bonds from the city of Albuquerque; $2.4 million in job training funds; $10 million from the city and state from a local development fund and funding from several venture capital firms that are backed by the State Investment Council.

Pahl recalls getting kids excited about learning in his Teach for America classrooms, and he knows that鈥檚 the key to higher achievement. He sees that potential in connection with Pacific Fusion and its coming job opportunities.

鈥淪omething that I really saw here is that we have jobs for people who don鈥檛 have a college degree or even an associate鈥檚 degree, all the way to somebody with a Ph.D. in advanced physics,鈥� Pahl says. 鈥淎s we鈥檙e growing and building and 鈥� making the science reality through our work here, we can catch people鈥檚 attention, and more importantly, catch our future workforce鈥檚 attention. These are the kind of opportunities that I think are exciting enough to do that.鈥�

What would it mean for fusion to become a viable energy source?

It fills this gap of clean, on-demand power we don鈥檛 have right now. Fusion can be this solution to plugging into the grid and providing clean 鈥� so no methane, no carbon 鈥� and on-demand energy. Probably more importantly, because it鈥檚 not reliant on the weather or the sun being outside, we can turn it up or down as needed, so it solves for that problem.

Fusion energy has been talked about for decades. What makes it more possible now?

Two separate milestones at different labs (Sandia and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories) in 2022 really tell us that it is possible. Now there鈥檚 still real structural things we have to figure out, but they鈥檙e engineering problems, not theoretical physics problems. That leads us to believe we can solve those in a way that will make sense for commercialized fusion power in the future. And so, yes, we鈥檝e been spending decades trying to get to fusion energy, but now we鈥檙e four years into having some solid science behind how to do that in a way that wasn鈥檛 true in 2020 or 2015. (Editor鈥檚 note: The milestones were at Lawrence Livermore, which used ignition to show that fusion fuel can produce more energy than is required to produce it, and at Sandia, where its Z machine demonstrated pulsed-power fusion that is more efficient than laser-driven systems.)

Why did you make the leap from education policy to this job?

If this company is successful, and a big part of my job is to help make it successful 鈥� especially in New Mexico 鈥� that means real things for New Mexico students and families. We talk about it all the time: getting our talent to stay here. I think it also just means a higher level of achievement in their current education spot. If you鈥檙e excited about something that鈥檚 even 10 years away, it might get you excited for your math class. Whether they end up working here or not, there鈥檚 just that potential for more engagement because they know of this local opportunity.

What was your first job?

Making tie-dye T-shirts in my uncle鈥檚 basement.

What do you do in your free time?

I like to be outside. I live in Santa Fe. We have a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old. We鈥檙e going on hikes and bike rides. I鈥檓 a mountain biker, trail runner and skier.

What will your work with school districts and community colleges involve?

Right now, I鈥檓 primarily working with our local community colleges on building a technician pipeline, which is people with the skill set that we need to be able to build these components for the demonstration system and future power plants. We are pretty background agnostic. We need to have folks who work with their hands, but then we need them to be able to collaborate with each other. And they鈥檙e potentially going to be on the phone with a world-class engineer in California, saying, 鈥淚鈥檓 putting this together, and here鈥檚 what I鈥檓 seeing is wrong.鈥� They have to have 鈥� those skill sets that I think everybody places some value on. And so we鈥檙e creating programming with Central New Mexico Community College, University of New Mexico-Valencia and we鈥檙e also doing some outreach with New Mexico State (University) Grants.

What鈥檚 been a hard part of your job?

I would really say it鈥檚 the learning curve and conveying what the potential opportunities are here because it鈥檚 so new. So how do I convey that to the myriad of audiences that I will be engaging with and have engaged with, while I鈥檓 learning myself? It means lots of learning, and you can only do so much by opening up a website or a book. A lot of the biggest pieces I learn are from conversations with our engineers, because they鈥檙e working on a small piece of the problem, and I can now place those in the overall arc of the technology that鈥檚 being built right now. Yeah, it鈥檚 hard, but hard is good in my world.

Ellen Marks, a former Journal editor, writes One-on-One profiles and Scam Watch. You can reach her at emarks@abqjournal.com.