The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today (Jan 16) announced $107 million in funding for six projects in the Fusion Innovative Research Engine (FIRE) Collaboratives, and that several privately funded fusion companies have completed early critical-path science and technology (S&T) milestones in the Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program ("the Milestone Program"). Both programs, administered by DOE's Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) program in the Office of Science, are cornerstones of DOE's fusion strategy to accelerate the viability of commercial fusion energy. 

"The launch of the DOE Milestone Program and FIRE Collaboratives are critical steps in accelerating progress toward the U.S. Bold Decadal Vision for Commercial Fusion Energy," said Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk. "As the world races to make fusion a viable source of energy for industry and consumers, these programs signal that the U.S. intends to be the first to commercialize fusion energy through strong partnerships among our National Laboratories, universities, and the private sector to realize industry-led designs for fusion pilot plants." 

FIRE Collaboratives Project Selections 

The FIRE Collaboratives are aimed at creating a fusion energy S&T innovation ecosystem by forming virtual, centrally managed teams called "Collaboratives" that have a collective goal of bridging FES's basic science research programs with the needs of the growing fusion industry, including the activities supported under the Milestone Program. 

This initiative represents a significant step forward in FES's commitment to advancing fusion energy research and development, and aims to create new economic opportunities, maintain US leadership in fusion, bolster US-based manufacturing and supply chains, and enable the development of technologies crucial for national security, energy security, and defense. 

FES is pleased to announce the first awards for the FIRE Collaboratives that support materials and technologies required by a diverse set of fusion concepts. They include developing nuclear blanket testing capabilities at Idaho National Laboratory, materials development at the University of Tennessee - Knoxville, materials testing and advanced simulation capabilities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, target injector technology for inertial fusion energy concepts, and fusion fuel-cycle testing capabilities at Savannah River National Laboratory.  

Total anticipated funding for FIRE collaboratives is $180 million for projects lasting up to four years in duration. Additional awards drawing from the same pool of proposals may be made in the future. This is contingent on the availability of funds appropriated by Congress. 

The list of projects and more information can be found on the Fusion Energy Sciences program homepage. 

Selection for award negotiations is not a commitment by DOE to issue an award or provide funding. Before funding is issued, DOE and the applicants will undergo a negotiation process, and DOE may cancel negotiations and rescind the selection for any reason during that time.   

Progress in the Milestone Program 

The Milestone Program is modeled in part after the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. With relatively modest federal investments, the COTS program enabled private companies to meet early technical milestones on the way to building today's commercial space-launch industry. 

Analogous to the earlier NASA COTS program, privately funded fusion companies in the DOE Milestone Program pursue both S&T and business/commercialization milestones (mutually negotiated with DOE). They receive federal payments after DOE verifies completion of each milestone through independent, expert review. The private company provides greater than 50% (in many cases much greater than 50%) of the cost to meet milestones. The company benefits both through the non-dilutive capital it receives from the government as well as through DOE's validation of milestone completion, which are both helpful for subsequent private fundraising. 

Thus, the Milestone Program acts as a catalyst, where strategic federal investments are significantly amplified with follow-on private funding. To date, Milestone awardees have collectively raised over $350 million of new private funding since their selection into the program was announced in May 2023, compared to the $46 million of federal funding initially committed for negotiated milestones. The benefit to the U.S. public is the de-risking of multiple fusion-development paths that have both been peer-reviewed to be technically credible and are well aligned with commercial factors and needs. 

Specifically, the 8 awardees of the present DOE Milestone Program are working to resolve critical-path S&T gaps, in partnership with national laboratories and universities, toward realizing preliminary engineering designs for their fusion pilot plants (FPPs). The most aggressive and well-funded of the awardees are aiming for successful FPP preliminary-design reviews by the late 2020s to meet the ambitious and aspirational timeline of realizing an operating FPP by the mid-2030s. 

S&T milestones that have been met by companies thus far include the following: 

• Computational modeling for a high-gain target design for laser-driven inertial fusion energy (Focused Energy) 
• Demonstration of ion-beam focusing to support the fast-ignition approach to inertial fusion energy (Focused Energy) 
• Whole-device modeling of simple mirror equilibria to enable scientific energy gains of at least 5 for the tandem-mirror approach to fusion energy (Realta Fusion) 
• Down selection to a family of optimized stellarator equilibria taking into account multiple factors of plasma confinement, stability, and stellarator components and subsystems (Thea Energy) 
• Engineering design, prototyping, and operation of a single, high-temperature-superconducting magnet coil that is the building block of Thea Energy's approach to generating 3-dimensional, optimized stellarator fields using only planar coils (Thea Energy). 

Quantitative metrics were required to be met for these milestones. The specific metrics are typically protected information of the companies. The other Milestone awardees are Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Tokamak Energy, Type One Energy, Xcimer Energy, and Zap Energy, all of whom are working on their early S&T milestones as well. 

All 8 awardees are presently working toward presenting pre-conceptual designs and technology roadmaps of their FPP concepts within the first 18 months of the Milestone program roughly late 2025 (18 months into the Milestone Program). If they successfully meet these milestones, they will proceed into the next phase of the Milestone Program, where all the awardees are planning to build and operate major next-step integrated experiments and/or demonstrate some of the critical underlying technologies for their FPPs. Continued progress in the Milestone program is contingent on Congressional appropriations, successful negotiation of future milestones, and successful progress in the program. 

The DOE Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program was first authorized in the Energy Act of 2020 and received its first funding appropriation in fiscal year 2022. The program was announced in September 2022 and, following a rigorous merit-review process, 8 selectees were announced in May 2023. Initially, $46 million has been obligated for the first 18 months of the program. The program is authorized for a total of $415 million through fiscal year 2027 in the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022.