Fusion Industry Association Sends Letter on Fusion Budget to Secretary of Energy Granholm

On January 11, the Fusion Industry Association sent a letter to Secretary of Energy Granholm to express support for increasing funding and prioritizing commercialization of fusion energy in the 2025 budget request that will soon be delivered to Congress.

The Biden Administration has made fusion policy a priority, by announcing a Bold Decadal Vision for Commercial Fusion Energy, including fusion in the Net-Zero Game Changers Initiative, and requesting $1 billion in the 2024 budget for fusion research. However, Congress has yet to act on the budget and the DOE needs to act with more urgency:

Now is not the time to take a step backwards. As you prepare to submit the budget for 2025 to Congress, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) request must continue to support full-funding for Fusion Energy Sciences (FES), as outlined by the CHIPs and Sciences Act, and must also prioritize closing the scientific gaps in fusion technology – including in materials sciences and the fusion fuel cycle – as outlined in the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee’s Long-Range Plan (LRP).

FIA Letter, January 11, 2024

The FIA supports the recently announced vision of FES Associate Director Jean Paul Allain to rework the programs within the Office of Science, but to achieve the goal of fusion deployment within a decade, more urgency is needed.

If the U.S. waits, other nations are already accelerating their pathway to fusion energy. In China, they recently announced the creation a new national champion, the “China Fusion Corporation” by saying “China takes the lead!”

With this letter, the FIA and its member companies stand ready to support Secretary Granholm and the Administration when they request the funding that Congress has authorized and the fusion community supports to prioritize accelerating the commercialization of fusion energy.

Meanwhile the FIA has also supported efforts to ensure that the 2024 budget request gets the support it needs and eagerly awaits action by Congress.