COVER STORY | FUSION INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT However, as solutions are found to some of the biggest


physics issues new challenges become more prominent. “The areas of challenge that have been identified include things that are needed for the demonstration plants themselves. To make a power plant you have to be able to do the whole rest of the balance of plant, the fuel cycle, you have to have resilient materials. These things are still identified as a challenge and companies are becoming more aware of it as they are confident that they can build a machine that will demonstrate fusion.” Nonetheless, while the companies themselves have


always been confident that they could achieve commercial fusion, the FIA argues that investors and other stakeholders are also increasingly feeling that confidence in eventual success too. And, while that is not necessarily being reflected in more investment from the private sector, Holland suggests this is indicative of a milestone-based investment structure that is prevalent in the fusion industry, saying: “I think what we’re going to see investment follow milestones, investors are basically saying show us results and then that will unleash the next stage.”


Key players and technology choices The report highlights that the total funding figure came from a wide range of investments across many of the 45 fusion companies, including notable deals such as $100m for Xcimer, $90m for SHINE, and $65m for Helion. Fusion companies which have recorded $200m of investment or more include TAE Technologies ($1bn+), General Fusion, Tokamak Energy, Zap Energy, Commonwealth Fusion Systems ($2bn+), Helion, SHINE and ENN. Given the current state of fusion development there


is no clear or even emergent technology leader. Holland comments: “If you look at the numbers it’s very clear that


historically the most funding has gone into magnetically confined fusion. Whether it’s tokamaks or stellarators or like TAE’s field reverse currents, the bulk of the funding has gone into that. That said, significant amounts of new funding have recently gone into laser inertial fusion so what I extrapolate from that is that the market hasn’t really decided yet. We are not at a time when there’s been a down selection and in fact seeing a proliferation of different technologies. Of the 45 companies, it’s almost 45 different ways to get to commercial fusion and there might be more.” The FIA saw a leap in the number of companies between


the second and third reports (2022-2023) where the figure jumped from 33 to 43 but while the increase in companies has stabilised there are still clearly potential opportunities for many more new entrants. Beyond the technical and financial challenges another


potential issue faced by both fusion and fission nuclear power sectors is recruitment and securing the staff to not only build but operate the power plants of the future. Again, though, Holland is confident this issue can be resolved: “We absolutely have to have the people to be able to do this and we think that is a solvable problem. The fusion workforce is really downstream of the whole STEM, science, technology, engineering, manufacturing workforce so those problems are well known and understood around the world. We’re convinced that if you can address those problems then fusion is actually a relatively small part for the next decade or so but then it will get to be significant when we get into the scale up and global deployment.” The FIA records the fusion workforce expanding by


around 1000 people a year on average, which is adequate to meet the needs of the industry for the next several years, but there has been a substantial increase in recruitment since the last report. Recording a 34% increase since 2023


Above: TAE Technologies is one of a number of milestone investment model fusion development companies 26 | August 2024 | www.neimagazine.com


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