DOE Announces $42 Million for Inertial Fusion Energy Hubs

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $42 million for a program that will establish multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary hubs to advance foundational inertial fusion energy (IFE) science and technology, building on the groundbreaking work of the Department’s researchers into harnessing the power of the sun and stars. The hubs will be led by researchers at Colorado State University, the University of Rochester, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where last year a team successfully achieved fusion ignition for the first time, proving that creating energy from fusion is possible. Fusion has the potential to provide abundant, reliable, and non-carbon-emitting energy, and President Biden has set a goal of demonstrating a proof-of-concept for several different types of fusion power plants in 10 years as part of the effort to achieve the Administration’s ambitious climate and energy goals.