The U.S. Department of Energy announced $134 million in funding for two fusion programs on Wednesday, money intended to work on bridging the gap between research and commercialization.
The bulk of the funding is reserved for seven teams tied to the Fusion Innovative Research Engine (FIRE) Collaboratives, a collection of virtual teams at universities and laboratories producing research prioritizing commercial application.
About $6 million of the award is for the Innovation Network for Fusion Energy program, led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, connecting the private sector with DOE laboratories and universities.
The projects selected, running between $100,000 and $500,000 each, include research in materials science, laser technology development, high temperature superconducting magnet assessment and artificial intelligence learning for fusion modeling and simulation.
“In the context of fusion energy development, that’s a drop in the bucket,” said Edwin Lyman, a physicist and the director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, about the department’s $134 million commitment. “Given the enormous technical challenges that fusion energy development still requires, which are undoubtedly going to be extremely costly.”
The federal financial support comes as the larger energy industry shows a renewed interest in nuclear power as data centers spike U.S. energy demand for the first time in decades.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, DOE is unleashing the next frontier of American energy,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in announcing the research commitment. “Fusion power holds the promise of limitless, reliable, American-made energy.”
The long-standing issue with scaling traditional nuclear power is the technology’s high costs, lengthy regulatory processes to ensure safety and unresolved waste management that are part of the nuclear fission process, which captures the energy released by splitting atoms.
Fusion mimics the process that takes place inside the sun, where forces fuse hydrogen atoms. The process would produce much more energy than fission without producing highly dangerous nuclear waste. But so far scientists haven’t come close to harnessing fusion for commercial processes—an accomplishment that may still be decades away.
One of the only nuclear reactors built in the U.S. in the last 30 years is the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Waynesboro, Georgia. The reactor uses the heat produced by fission to make steam, which powers turbines to make electricity.
Construction at the two new reactor sites began in 2009 and was originally planned to cost $14 billion and begin commercial operation in 2016 and 2017. After significant construction delays and cost overruns, the units began operating in 2023 and 2024 and are estimated to have cost more than $30 billion.
In the case of fusion, when…
Read More: Department of Energy Allocates $134 million for Fusion Funding
