Day 2 Highlights: 2025 Fusion Industry Association Policy Conference
At the Fusion Industry Association (FIA) 2025 annual policy conference last week at Union Station in Washington DC, the second day focused on “supercharging” the road to commercial fusion energy. Several panels were of particular interest, which we will discuss here.
The Fusion Supply Chain – Hurdle to Scaling Fusion, or Opportunity?
One of the areas that drew a great deal of interest was the Fusion Energy Supply Chain Panel, which included Dr. Mark Plesko (CEO, Cosylab), Shaun Walsh (Chief Revenue Officer, Peak Nano), Jay Vitha (VP of BizDev, MetOx International), and Jackie Siebens (Direct of Public Affairs, Helion Energy). For quite a while, the fusion industry has worried about how to develop a robust supply chain to fulfill its need for a variety of technologies that are critical to fusion machines. Some of these technologies, such as pulsed power systems, are in “relatively” common usage outside of fusion energy; others such as high-vacuum systems and high-temperature superconductors require some “adapting” to fusion’s specific needs. The most challenging are technologies which are not utilized in the non-fusion world; examples of this include thermal blankets, materials that can stand high-energy neutrons, and fusion fuels themselves.
The other part of the challenge is the relative risk profile of fusion companies versus the supply chain companies. Fusion is funded by deep-pocketed investors who understand the high risks (and potentially astronomical rewards) that come with investing in fusion energy; they understand that it may be decades before their payoff comes to fruition (if at all). Contrast that with a supply chain company, which are (mostly) going concerns that are focused on making a profit. Even for companies that build products that are in common usage, this can be challenging. Say for instance that a fusion company asks a vendor to build a high-power system using a million pounds of high-power capacitors, which (let’s say hypothetically) doubles your revenue for a year. Sounds like a great deal, right? Except you have to build a new facility, buy more machines, hire more people, etc. for what could be a single order. This “attractive” opportunity could become unattractive in a hurry.
One of the most pronounced examples of this is actually people. It can take a dozen years to produce a PhD in nuclear engineering focused on fusion energy. During this time the person is investing their time (and not a small amount of money) to enter a field which may or may not be ready when they graduate, and all the while passing by other opportunities. Even for workers such as engineers, machinists, or even business people, this is not a choice without risk. Human capital is particularly an issue, given that China is graduating 10X the PhDs focused on fusion energy that we are.
These are some of the issues that the Supply Chain panel discussed during their half an hour. The real challenge isn’t just how to get companies involved or to get investors to put money into first-of-a-kind (FOAK) fusion machines that successfully achieve fusion. Rather, the challenge is to make the fusion industry and supply chain “economical”; i.e., to design fusion machines that can be built in dozens (or more!) a year, and that will be competitive economically with existing power sources. One of the things that the Supply Chain panel brought up was the importance of standards in enabling scaling of the supply chain. An example cited by Shaun Walsh was the datacenter industry, where everything from the width of a datacenter rack (19”) to the standard “rack height units” (RU, which equals 1.75 inches) to the networking interfaces (Ethernet, InfiniBand, and Fibre Channel) are all standardized, enabling a supply chain industry that is easily scalable; something that is not the case today in fusion energy, but is exceedingly important if the supply chain and the industry as a whole.
If you want to reduce the cost and increase the number of vendors supporting a technology (whether HTS tape, vacuum pumps, lasers, fuel injection systems, etc.), standards are proven to be effective at doing just that.
Getting Fusion Energy to the Grid
While the generation of power isn’t the only use of fusion energy, cheap clean electricity is clearly the “golden egg” that most of the fusion companies are going after. However, you can’t just “plug a power plant into the grid”. What’s more, all of the current fusion technologies (tokamak, ICF, etc.) require a considerable amount of electricity to start (also known as a “black start”) before they can put electricity back on the grid. The “Getting To The Grid” panel, consisting of Erich Fritz (Manager BizDev, Dominion Energy Virginia), Chris Mowrey (CEO, Type One Energy), Nicholas McMurray (Director of International and Nuclear Policy, ClearPath), and Kathleen Robertson (Vice President of Emerging Technologies, American Clean Power Association) explored these topics as they relate to fusion energy and the grid.
One of the biggest challenges of renewables is that their output is neither controllable nor predictable. This poses a great problem for grid operators (also known as Independent System Operators, or ISOs), who need to be able to increase or decrease the power output of one or more power plants to keep the grid stable. Fusion adds an extra “difficulty” by requiring the ISO to anticipate black starts so that the power required to energize a fusion machine is available. On the positive side, the power output of a fusion reactor is (within limits) both reliable and variable, making it a great clean basis source of electricity, helping to stabilize the grid.
Conclusion – The Future of Fusion Energy Looks Bright
We are at a crossroads with fusion energy. While exactly how the Trump Administration will (or won’t) support fusion energy is still somewhat uncertain, It is clear that there is bipartisan support for its development. Both the House and Senate have bipartisan fusion caucuses (members of the House Fusion Caucus appeared at the last roundtable panel at the FIA Policy Conference) are working on measures to “supercharge” fusion’s development and fielding in the US, and to ensure our leadership in this area, including needed legal and regulatory steps. While fusion energy is still not a certainty, it continues to look as a bright solution to our energy needs.