Department of Energy Allocates $134 million for Fusion Funding

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 two atomic nuclei combine to form a single heavier one while releasing energy, scientists are nowhere close to turning the technology into commercially operating reactors. 

Lyman said that while the DOE programs exist precisely to address technical gaps, he’s skeptical of the wild west environment of fusion companies funded by venture capitalists. 

“Nuclear development, ​​whether it’s fission or fusion, requires a level of seriousness that I think is just not present in most of these projects right now,” said Lyman, who before joining the Union of Concerned Scientists was president of the Nuclear Control Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based organization focused on addressing nuclear proliferation.

A major technical issue with fusion is science’s inability so far to confine very high energy plasma in a way it maintains its stability and doesn’t destroy the structural materials containing it, Lyman said. 

Other challenges to developing fusion include regulatory uncertainty and public and private sector misalignments in areas such as research priorities, according to a 2023 report on fusion from the Government Accountability Office. 

The DOE expects to invest up to $220 million in total funding for the FIRE Collaboratives over four years, depending on future congressional budgets, according to the announcement. 

Investing in nuclear technology has been a priority of the Trump administration’s energy plan. Through executive orders, President Donald Trump instructed the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to create an expedited pathway to approve fission reactors that have already been tested by the Department of Energy or the Department of Defense.

The administration also seeks to expand American nuclear capacity from around 100 gigawatts to 400 gigawatts by 2050 and has expedited the permitting process for mining essential elements that are used in other nuclear processes like fission.

Trump’s focus on nuclear has come as the administration has cut incentives and stopped progress on renewable energy projects. Most recently, the administration has deployed a range of tactics to halt offshore wind expansion, including a stop-work order from the U.S. Department of the Interior late last month on the Revolution Wind project off the coast of Rhode Island, which is 80 percent complete. 

American Clean Power Association CEO Jason Grumet said that stop-work order is more than a bureaucratic delay—it’s a broken promise to the communities, workers, consumers and businesses counting on the project. 

“This is not the first time extreme partisan politics has derailed sound energy policy,” Grumet said. “The unfortunate message to investors is clear: the U.S. is no longer a reliable place for long-term energy investments.”