Other companies that were founded more recently think they have a shot at building a fusion power plant for less, including Pacific Fusion. Pacific Fusion is chasing an approach known as pulser-driven inertial confinement fusion (ICF). But where NIF uses lasers to kick off the compression, Pacific Fusion wants to use massive pulses of electricity. “The faster you can implode it, the hotter it’ll get,” Keith LeChien, co-founder and CTO of Pacific Fusion, told TechCrunch. The tweaks don’t significantly change how much energy Pacific Fusion needs to deliver to the target.