WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and private industry should invest now in order to have an operational fusion pilot plant in the 2035-2040 time frame, says Bringing Fusion to the U.S. Grid, a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. These investments are urgently needed to resolve open technical and scientific issues as well as to design, construct, and commission a pilot plant, according to the report.

Fusion power, a form of power generation that creates electricity by using heat from nuclear fusion reactions, has the potential to address significant U.S. energy needs and can contribute to the nation’s transition to a low-carbon emission electrical generation infrastructure. Using the technological and research results from U.S. investments, including those into the international fusion experiment known as ITER, the United States is positioned to begin planning its first fusion pilot plant if the requisite resources are prioritized and allocated.

“The U.S. fusion community has been a pioneer of fusion research since its inception and now has the opportunity to bring fusion to the marketplace,” said Richard Hawryluk, associate director for fusion at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and chair of the committee that wrote the report.

Building upon the work of the 2019 Final Report of the Committee on a Strategic Plan for U.S. Burning Plasma Research, this new report identifies key goals and innovations needed to support the development of a U.S. fusion pilot plant. Many of these innovations, including advancements in confinement of the plasma, extraction of heat, ensuring sustained structural integrity of the power plant components, and closing the fuel cycle, should be developed in parallel in order to meet the challenge of operating a pilot plant between 2035 and 2040. Committee discussions with utility operators also indicated that a pilot plant operating during this time frame creates an opportunity to support the transition to low-carbon emission.

The report acknowledges that utilizing fusion as an energy source will require the resolution of significant technical, scientific, and economic challenges. However, other countries and groups around the world are rapidly moving toward fusion pilot plants of their own. If the United States can overcome these challenges and provide the resources for a fusion pilot plant as outlined in the report, it has the opportunity to play a global leadership role to add fusion to its arsenal of low-carbon energy alternatives.

DOE should also move forward now to foster the creation of national teams, including public-private partnerships, that will develop conceptual pilot plant designs and technology road maps, the report says. This would lead to an engineering design of a pilot plant that will bring fusion to commercial viability. These partnerships will require the expertise at national laboratories, universities, and industry working together. The teams should also embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion to attract and retain the multidisciplinary workforce necessary to meet the challenges and opportunities of bringing fusion to the grid.

The study — undertaken by the Committee on the Key Goals and Innovations Needed for a U.S. Fusion Pilot Plant — was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. The National Academies are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, technology, and medicine. They operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln.

Contact:
Andrew Robinson, Media Relations Associate
Office of News and Public Information
202-334-2138; news@nas.edu