ORNL fusion scientist Elijah Martin is working with TAE Technologies to demonstrate the feasibility of field-reversed configuration reactors, a possible alternative to the traditional tokamak-based devices. Credit: ORNL.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory manages the Innovation Network for Fusion Energy Program, or INFUSE, with Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, to help the private sector find solutions to technical challenges that need to be resolved to make practical fusion energy a reality.
"The main goal of this program is to accelerate basic research to develop cost-effective, innovative fusion energy technologies in the private sector," said INFUSE Director and ORNL fusion expert Dennis Youchison. "We do that by matching the most impactful assistance requests to the knowledge and world-class capabilities that only the network of DOE national laboratories can offer."
INFUSE is funded by the US Department of Energy's Fusion Energy Sciences program in the Office of Science, to provide financial and technical support to fusion industry in five main areas of research: enabling technologies, materials science, diagnostics, theory and simulation (including artificial intelligence), and research requiring unique DOE experimental facilities.
The program has been running since 2019. In that time, it has facilitated 47 collaborations with industry partners, including projects with Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Energy Driven Technologies, General Fusion, HelicitySpace, Magneto Inertial Fusion Technologies, Renaissance Americas, TAE Technologies and Tokamak Energy.
"Since its foundation, the program has also expanded to all 17 DOE national laboratories and US accredited universities involved in fusion research," said Youchison.
