Skip to content
01.19.2023

Commonwealth Fusion Systems Wins Two DoE INFUSE Awards to Accelerate Fusion Energy Development

Devens, Mass., January 20, 2023  – Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), a startup commercializing fusion energy, today announced that the U.S. Department of Energy’s Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) program has awarded the company two new grants funding research and development projects with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The INFUSE award program is designed to accelerate fusion energy development through public-private research partnerships. 

The newly-announced CFS awards will support the following projects: 

  • Oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) ferritic steel wire feedstock development for large format additive manufacturing, in partnership with PNNL. ODS steel is a promising candidate for structural materials applications in fusion plasma as it retains many of the beneficial high-temperature mechanical and thermal properties of standard steels, while gaining additional resistance to neutron damage through the incorporation of oxide nano-particles. Producing ODS parts, however, has been historically challenging. This project will explore the use of ODS steel wires to produce large-format parts through additive manufacturing. 
  • A modern neutronics-modeling uncertainty methodology towards a future fusion neutronics handbook, in partnership with ORNL. Benchmark handbooks support the design of neutronic systems by validating simulation tools and describing sources of error and uncertainty. This project supports the development of a handbook-grade set of prototypical fusion data sets and neutronics workflows. The work will benefit both CFS and the broader fusion community by providing a modernized neutronics modeling guide that includes a comprehensive uncertainty treatment. 

CFS has won 18 INFUSE awards, and has past or present collaborative projects with twelve U.S. National Labs.

About CFS

Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) is collaborating with MIT to combine decades of research with new groundbreaking high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnet technology. HTS magnets will enable compact fusion power plants that can be constructed faster and at lower cost. The mission is to deploy fusion power plants to meet global decarbonization goals as fast as possible. CFS has raised more than $2 billion in funding since it was founded in 2018 and assembled a team of leaders in tough tech, fusion science, and manufacturing with a track record of rapid execution. Supported by the world’s leading investors, CFS is uniquely positioned to deliver limitless, clean, fusion power to combat climate change.