Energy announces roadmap for fusion science and technology
The Department of Energy is amping up its funding presence in fusion energy generation through private sector collaboration and leveraging artificial intelligence, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Tuesday morning.
Speaking during an event hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project, Wright both announced the release of the department’s Fusion Science & Technology Roadmap and unveiled the corresponding fusion policy priorities Energy plans to adopt.
Federal government support for private sector innovators at an infrastructure and financial level will be pivotal to that effort. The goal stated in the roadmap — which was called for as part of the agency’s 2024 fusion energy strategy — is to scale public infrastructure that supports the private sector’s fusion operations in the 2030s.
“We need the commercial efforts, but we need the labs,” Wright said, referring to the 17 U.S. national laboratories. “I am passionate about the critical nature of our natural labs and investment in those.”
In addition to increasing federal participation in scaling the U.S. fusion sector to commercial viability, Wright underscored the role AI — which he called “a tremendous enabling technology” — is set to play in advancing the fundamental science required to scale fusion energy production.
“It’s hard to overstate the catalytic effect of artificial intelligence,” he said, noting that AI’s data processing power can support advancements in materials science, digital modeling of the sun’s own fusion energy production and molecular dynamics.
Wright touched on familiar Trump administration policy points that fuel Energy’s posture — namely leading the world in energy production and technological innovation — noting China’s investments in fusion energy technology is providing ample funding for new energy center construction.
“They’ve got top scientific talent,” Wright said. “So I think China’s serious and moving fast.”
The Trump administration is betting on enhancing federal collaborations with the private sector to help close outstanding scientific knowledge gaps, such as in domains like the breeding and handling of fusion fuels, as well as strategically allocating finite government funds.
Wright linked advancements in fusion sciences to spending more federal money on national laboratory research and development, though he noted that means cutting spending elsewhere. This posture reflects a hallmark of the second Trump administration: cutting federal spending that is not deemed critical.
“We have to decide that [the] government has finite resources,” Wright said. “We need to spend less on some things — and those have to be bigger numbers — and more on other things.”