The Plan to Make Gold Inside a Fusion Power Plant
Updated: 3 days ago
For centuries, alchemists tried to turn ordinary metals into gold.
Now a nuclear fusion startup thinks it could do exactly that—and use the proceeds to make fusion power economically irresistible.
I recently caught up with Marathon Fusion chief science officer Jason Parisi to find out how.
In May 2025, Jason got a call from his colleague Adam, who thought he’d discovered something almost too good to be true: a way to turn mercury into gold inside a fusion power plant. Jason spent a week looking for a flaw.
What emerged was a proposal to produce gold and electricity together. By Jason’s estimates, that could double or triple a future plant’s revenue.
But there’s a catch: the gold could need seven to 17 years in storage before you could handle it with your bare hands.
In our interview, you’ll hear:
Why Marathon is starting with cancer-fighting isotopes instead of electricity (4:19)
How a fusion reactor could turn mercury into gold (11:28)
Why Jason thinks radioactive gold could still be good business (16:10)
Could making gold at scale crash the market? (18:31)
How Marathon used AI to help discover—and then produce—new medical isotopes (25:49)
—Stephen McBride
