Plan advances Trump administration’s executive order on development of energy sector
The US has set out plans to “marshal the forces” of the public and private sectors as it bids to provide the scientific and technological foundation to support a competitive US fusion energy industry and commercialisation by the mid-2030s.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) warned, however, that while the US private sector is investing more than $9bn (€7.7bn) to demonstrate sustaining burning plasma on the path to fusion power plants, there remain critical science, materials and technology gaps such as the breeding and handling of fusion fuels, that must be closed.
“These critical gaps require innovation and bridging of public and private sectors,” the DOE said in its Fusion Science & Technology Roadmap, a national strategy to accelerate the development and commercialisation of fusion energy.
The DOE said the roadmap aims to usher a burgeoning fusion private sector industry in the US “towards maturity on the most rapid timeline”. It targets actions and milestones out to the mid-2030s.
“Establishing a competitive fusion power industry requires more than the development, demonstration and deployment of fusion energy technologies,” the roadmap says.
“To sustain and scale fusion energy requires bridging both public and private sector talent, expertise and resources.”
A public and private sector timeline sees the private sector completing the design and derisking of an early-stage demonstration fusion plant within two to three years. In parallel, the public sector would build small-to-medium test stands, start design of large-scale facilities and R&D neutron sources.
In the mid-term, three to five years, the private sector would build early-stage fusion pilot plants while the public sector would build integration platforms with neutron sources – key devices that are used for research.
In the longer term, five to 10 years, the private sector would operate early generation non-nuclear and nuclear power plants. The public sector would deliver large-scale integration blanket-tritium fuel cycle facilities – a crucial component of a fusion power plant that manages tritium, the radioactive isotope of hydrogen used as fuel – and a prototypic neutron materials testing platform, a device which analyses materials non-destructively at an atomic level.
40 Countries Working On Fusion, Says IAEA
The roadmap was developed with input from over 600 researchers, engineers, and industry stakeholders. The DOE said it advances president Donald Trump’s executive order Unleashing American Energy, reinforcing the administration’s commitment to expand domestic energy production and restore US energy dominance.
“By accelerating progress toward commercial fusion power, DOE is strengthening America’s grid, rebuilding critical supply chains, and securing a new era of abundant, reliable, American-made energy,” the DOE said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said recently that nearly 40 countries are engaged in nuclear fusion programmes with investment now exceeding $10bn and more than 160 fusion devices operational, under construction or planned, ranging from pilot plants to larger facilities.
In July the US-based Fusion Industry Association (FIA) said the fusion industry raised $2.64bn in private and public funding in the 12 months leading to July 2025.
Nuclear fusion is a process where two light atomic nuclei combine to form a single, heavier nucleus, releasing a large amount of energy. It is the opposite of nuclear fission, where a heavy atom is split apart.
Fusion is the same reaction that powers stars like our Sun. Scientists are working to replicate it on Earth to provide a clean and potentially limitless energy source.
