DOE program funds university, lab fusion research at CFS’ SPARC and other private sites
The Department of Energy has a new tool in its toolbox for building the fusion energy future, an opportunity for university and laboratory researchers to win government funding when joining our SPARC effort.
The DOE effort, called the Private Facility Research Program (PFR), funds research that’s of interest to those public-program researchers and that’s relevant to the SPARC tokamak we’re building here in Devens, Massachusetts as part of our fusion energy mission. Interested researchers must submit pre-applications to DOE by Feb. 19, and full applications are due April 23. Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) is one of several private companies involved.
We view PFR as a positive signal that the US fusion program is aligning behind the near-term commercialization of fusion power, taking advantage of cutting-edge facilities funded by the fusion industry.
Outside researchers complement our core abilities and allow us to build a diverse team that can avoid pitfalls and zero in on the best approaches. The $23 million in funding from the PFR program will help CFS and other companies take advantage of the knowledge and expertise found in the public programs, supporting the broader mission of the DOE’s Fusion Energy Sciences program.
We chose to build a tokamak because it’s the best understood path to fusion energy, with experience drawn from more than 150 tokamaks built around the world. SPARC is designed to demonstrate production of net fusion energy, a milestone called Q>1, in a commercially relevant way. That’ll pave the way for the ARC fusion power plant that’s slated to generate electricity for the power grid starting in the early 2030s.
SPARC isn’t designed to produce electricity. Instead, its major output will be data that enables CFS to design and build ARC. When operational, SPARC will be a globally leading facility — a generational leap in the class of facilities online.
The PFR Program will let the world’s best fusion researchers access a best-in-class facility, helping to ensure physics learnings from SPARC feed back into the pool of fusion knowledge. It’ll improve models and simulation tools that in turn help us design ARC and push the broader goal to deploy and scale fusion power. A key feature of the program is that DOE-supported researchers get access to scientific data from SPARC and are able to publish their results. Peer-reviewed research is important to advance fusion science.
Although modestly funded compared to other DOE fusion R&D efforts, CFS expects programs like this to grow quickly as SPARC and other private facilities commence operations.
PFR joins other recent DOE efforts that support fusion energy commercialization. CFS also participates in the Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program, which supports fusion companies’ efforts to develop final designs of their fusion power systems by reaching certain technical milestones; the Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) program that helps private companies gain access to National Lab expertise; the ARPA-E program to fund “high-risk, high-reward” research in energy technologies; and the Fusion Innovative Research Engine (FIRE) Collaboratives that fund university or National Lab research into science and technology areas identified in part by the needs of fusion industry.
