DOE puts $8.5 million into 28 fusion research awards

A small pot for 28 projects

Each award covers one or two years of research, according to the Department of Energy's announcement on 3 November.

Seventeen of the 28 projects are led by national laboratories and 11 by universities, with 22 commercial enterprises taking part as partners. The INFUSE leadership team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory ran the competitive peer review that picked them. The program sits inside the DOE Office of Science, and this is fiscal 2026 money. Companies get access to facilities and staff they could not justify building themselves. The labs get a line into what private fusion developers actually need.

Selection is not a commitment. DOE said applicants and the department still negotiate before any funding is issued. It may cancel negotiations and rescind a selection for any reason during that time.

What the research covers

The topics are narrow and technical: modeling and simulation, materials science, plasma diagnostic development and other enabling technologies.

Fusion combines light nuclei to release energy, the reaction that powers the sun, and doing it on Earth means creating and sustaining a plasma at extreme temperatures. Diagnostics measure what that plasma is doing; materials work determines what can survive next to it. Controlling the plasma and developing materials that can operate under demanding conditions are among the field's core challenges, according to Innovation News Network.

The list maps onto the DOE Fusion Science and Technology Roadmap, which sets out the research and technology priorities the department says commercial fusion needs. INFUSE exists to pair private fusion companies with national laboratory and university expertise through public-private research partnerships. "The race to commercial fusion will not be won in isolation," said DOE Under Secretary for Science Darío Gil in the announcement.

None of the 28 projects is a power plant. They are the supporting work that has to happen first.

Why an $8.5 million bet matters

ResearchAndMarkets values the global nuclear fusion market at $321.4 billion in 2025. It projects $473.9 billion by 2032, a compound annual growth rate of 5.7%, according to a report summary published on 2 November. The same summary argues that public-private partnerships de-risk fusion, while high-temperature superconducting magnets, AI, digital twins and additive manufacturing shrink reactor size, costs and development timelines. It names Commonwealth Fusion Systems, TAE Technologies and Helion Energy as private companies advancing alternative reactor configurations. Those are projections from a market research firm, not measured output.

DOE's own explainer on fusion energy science says a pickup truck of fusion fuel would carry the energy of 2 million metric tons of coal, if the engineering works.

The next funding round

The awards landed after INFUSE had already opened its fiscal 2027 Request for Assistance.

That round widens eligibility to consortia and adds a review topic for preconceptual designs of fusion pilot plants. DOE describes the changes as broadening opportunities for collaboration. The full list of selected projects is published on science.osti.gov.

The announcement did not name the 22 companies or break out what each project will receive. Nor has DOE said how large the fiscal 2027 round will be, or when those awards are expected.