Kyoto Fusioneering starts work on key fusion power plant device
Kyoto Fusioneering is expanding its U.S. presence by establishing a headquarters in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The company is partnering with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to develop the Unity-3 device, which tests fuel cycle technologies like breeding blankets for fusion reactors.
Why it matters
Advancements in fusion fuel cycle technology are critical for the commercial viability of fusion energy as a sustainable power source.
In the fusion power world, most of the attention gets lavished on the reactors themselves, where atoms fuse to unleash enormous amounts of energy. But a fusion reactor can’t run for long without a lot of other equipment, and building a fusion reactor is expensive enough on its own. Plenty of startups are happy to let someone else handle the rest .
Among the dozens of companies in the emerging fusion power supply chain, few specialists are bigger than Kyoto Fusioneering. The Japan-based company has raised $121 million in committed capital, according to FusionX. Now it has landed grants from the U.S. Department of Energy and the state of Tennessee to build a prototype fuel breeding device at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).
Alongside the announcement, Kyoto Fusioneering exclusively told TechCrunch that it’s moving its U.S. headquarters to Oak Ridge.
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