“Humanity can do amazing things, but it doesn't just happen on its own. It happens because folks step up.” That’s what DOE Deputy Secretary David Turk said marking the second anniversary of the Administration’s Bold Decadal Vision for Commercial Fusion Energy. He’s right.
Our work to put fusion power on the grid in the early 2030s is built on decades of progress in fusion research and requires years of sustained effort to overcome challenges in design, engineering, and manufacturing. That may sound hard, but humanity has done it before. Coal, wind, fission, and solar power all were once new inventions. They succeeded because driven people put in the effort, together and with urgency.
That’s what we’re doing with fusion, and that’s why we’re happy to be among the eight fusion companies that signed agreements in a $46 million DOE program to meet specific milestones on the path toward an operating fusion power plant. Achieving our milestones in the first phase of the program is worth $15 million, funding that complements the dollars we’re investing from our own budget. A key feature of the milestone program is that the companies — not the government or the taxpayer — bear all the technical and financial risk. The government verifies that the milestone was meaningful and actually accomplished, helping de-risk financial investments. This approach got the US a commercial space industry, and now we reuse the best parts for fusion.
Deputy Secretary Turk also announced another new part of the Bold Decadal Vision: a $180 million funding opportunity for Fusion Innovative Research Engine (FIRE) Collaboratives to help researchers at National Labs and universities tackle remaining scientific challenges to enable and scale commercial fusion power, in cooperation with private companies. We’ve advocated for this shift toward applied research in blankets, tritium, materials, and other key enabling areas for all companies since our founding.
Together, the programs embody the move to a broader mindset in how the federal government thinks about fusion. No longer is it primarily a subject of scientific research. Now it’s also about building power plants that fight climate change and tackle the world’s growing demand for clean, safe, abundant energy — and leveraging the best parts of the U.S. ecosystem to do it.
I was at the White House when the DOE announced the signings to a roomful of fusion and energy experts from the private sector and academia, including Justina Gallegos, Dr. Geri Richmond of the Office of the Under Secretary for Science and Innovation, U.S. Department of Energy, John Podesta, Ali Zaidi, and Laura Haynes Gillam.
It’s great to see such a high level of focus by senior Administration officials on fusion energy. Together, we can commercialize fusion power within a decade.
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