FUSION ENERGY NEWS

Type One Energy, Tokamak Energy, and AECOM have formed the UK Infinity Fusion Consortium, a private-sector-led effort to build a 400 MWe stellarator-based fusion power plant in the United Kingdom by 2034. The plant is the second to use Type One Energy’s stellarator design and the second fusion plant announced for the UK, after the STEP tokamak.

Zap Energy is becoming an integrated nuclear platform, pairing its sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch fusion machine with a 10 to 15 MW sodium-cooled microreactor on the fission side. The company also named Zabrina Johal as CEO. The Fusion Report sat down with Zap’s Ryan Umstattd to unpack the strategy, the funding picture, and the technology overlap.

This week’s fusion briefing covers Zap Energy’s new CEO and pivot to integrated fission-fusion, Commonwealth Fusion’s first-ever PJM interconnection filing, a joint CEO letter pressing Brussels for a coordinated fusion strategy, a new commentary on the $50/MWh cost bar, and nT-Tao’s MoU with Israel’s national water company to explore fusion-powered desalination.

In the finale of The Fusion Report’s Decathlon series, we hand out the medals. Sort of. Events 8 (funding) and 9 (regulation) are essentially complete. Events 1 and 2 (plasma performance and drivers) sit at the halfway mark, with KSTAR, EAST, JET, Polaris, and SPARC closing in. Events 3 through 6 are barely underway. No clear winner yet.

On Wednesday, May 7, The Fusion Report hosts Fusion 2035: The 9-Year Shot Clock, a half-day webcast bringing seven companies onto one stage to pressure-test the mid-2030s commercial timeline. Inertia, TAE Technologies, Thea Energy, Type One Energy, Realta Fusion, Peak Nano, and E&P Technologies each take 20 minutes, followed by a 45-minute live panel moderated by Mike Heumann of Ignition Research.

Japan’s Helical Fusion closed its Series B at JPY 2.7 billion ($17M US), bringing total funding to roughly JPY 9.8 billion ($61.4M US). The company also launched the Helix Program Official Partners with three founding industrial collaborators: NICHIAS, Hasetora Spinning, and Seno Kisen. Manufacturing for the Helix HARUKA demonstration magnets is now underway.