The Department of Energy will utilize public-private partnerships to help fund nuclear fusion while making use of artificial intelligence (AI), Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said at a think tank event this week.
DOE has released its Fusion Science and Technology Roadmap, Wright said at a Tuesday event hosted by Special Competitive Studies Project. Under the roadmap, DOE plans to align public investment and private innovation to deliver commercial fusion power deployed by the mid 2030s.
Wright said the roadmap is designed to be “synergistic with commercial [fusion] efforts, not competitive.”
DOE wants to “add to commercial efforts to speed the realization of the promise of fusion,” Wright said.
Along with the use of AI for fusion, winning a race to achieve fusion energy before China is pivotal, Wright said.
According to a study conducted by the Special Competitive Studies Project, China has invested the equivalent of $6.5 billion dollars in new fusion facilities since the National Ignition Facility achieved fusion ignition at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California during 2022.
From 2019 until now, China has spent around $10 billion on fusion, Wright added. While China is moving fast towards fusion, Wright said the United States has a stronger commercial sector with a lot of private money in that space.
“It is important [and] I think it is good for the world if the United States is the leader in fusion,” Wright said.
DOE has recently funded a handful of fusion research and development projects.
On Oct. 9, Tokamak Energy, the U.S. subsidiary of UK-based Tokamak Energy, was selected for the DOE’s Fusion Innovative Research Engine (FIRE). The initiative was awarded $128 million in an effort to accelerate core fusion energy science and technology.
Last month, the agency awarded $134 million in funding towards two fusion energy-based technology programs.