Fusion Fortnightly | 2026-05-12
No fluff, all facts.
Zap is doing fusion, fission, and fusion-fission. Type One Energy partners with Tokamak Energy and AECOM to build a UK stellarator power plant. Helion builds a new, smaller machine to learn stuff.
Companies
Zap Energy expands from fusion to fission and fission-fusion. It had to happen eventually. Increasing the capability of a fusion device from a good producer of neutrons to an economic source of energy is really hard and may be impossible for many of the fusion reactor concepts. Ideas have been thrown around for decades on fusion-fission hybrids where a fusion neutron source that’s not good enough on its own to make economic fusion energy is combined with a fission fuel that’s not good enough on its own to make a self-sustaining fission reactor. Hybrids are a highly debated space in the nuclear energy field: some consider them the best of both worlds, others consider them the worst of both worlds. Zap is framing this pivot as leveraging their liquid metal technology developed for fusion applications to be used on similar-scale (~50 MW) fission systems, fusion systems, and fusion-fission hybrid systems. Which begs the question: What do they have that is fundamentally better than the many fission companies out there at that scale? I admit to not knowing enough about the fission companies to make a clear statement. To me this pivot signals that Zap was not getting the performance out of their shear-flow-stabilized z-pinch as they had predicted and they needed to pivot. It’s an attempt to create a business model that justifies their previous valuations in the context of the technology they have developed and the demands of the outside world.
Zap Energy has appointed Zabrina Johal as CEO. Aligned with Zap’s pivot to include fission in their technology pathway, Zabrina spent nearly two decades at General Atomics in roles that “Led strategy, program development, and external engagement across General Atomics’ nuclear and defense portfolio.” This may be a great hire for Zap, depending on how well Zabrina can adjust to the organizational culture differences, which is no small feat.
Type One Energy, Tokamak Energy, and AECOM form the UK Infinity Fusion Consortium. This is a distinct effort from the UK’s STEP fusion power plant prototype. Type One Energy is an American stellarator company. Tokamak Energy is a British company that was a spherical tokamak company but has recently pivoted to being a superconducting magnet manufacturer and supplier. AECOM is an American multinational infrastructure consulting firm that knows how to build big stuff. I find it interesting that Tokamak Energy is the magnet supplier for Type One Energy in this consortium: just over a year ago it was announced that “…Type One Energy [gets] an exclusive license to use CFS’ groundbreaking high-temperature superconducting (HTS) cable technology in the development of its own proprietary stellarator fusion magnets. The agreement also gives Type One Energy the benefit of the experience CFS has in manufacturing the world’s most powerful HTS fusion magnets.”
Startorus Fusion closes a 500M RMB (74M USD) A+ round, becoming a unicorn (total valuation >1B USD). Startorus is working on a negative triangularity spherical tokamak. Based on this, it seems there is a disconnect between US and China private fusion company valuations, with China’s being on the high side.
Helion Energy is building “Tiny Merge,” a new plasma physics experiment. The smaller device will enable more physics learning alongside their larger experiment Polaris. Maybe they aren’t quite so ready for their 2028 power supply to Microsoft…
General Fusion announced a DOE-funded peer-reviewed fuel-cycle study with Savannah River National Laboratory. The short story is: having such a full and thick blanket allows for a high tritium breeding ratio and quicker ramp-up of fusion, assuming everything else works. They also found that a pure-lithium blanket trapped more tritium than a lead-lithium blanket (but we already knew that).
nT-Tao has signed a memorandum of understanding with Israel’s national water company to explore fusion energy for critical water infrastructure. Don’t know why a study would be needed: the answer is “yes” if they can build a fusion energy source. But I don’t think nT-Tao can.
Xcimer Energy hired Rachel Konrad as SVP of Strategic Communications. Rachel is an interesting choice given her background in mostly consumer-facing communications roles at places like Tesla (electric cars) and Impossible Foods (plant-based “meat”).
Xcimer Energy hired Douglas Kunzman as VP of Defense. Douglas has a long career in the US Navy and will help Xcimer sell to customers who want to shoot their lasers at non-fusion targets.
SHINE announces changes to leadership team and board, including new Chief Financial, Strategy, and Legal Officers.
General Fusion shares their Investor Day presentation as an SEC Form 8-K. Nothing new in there but a good resource to see what and how they are selling.
TMTG files SEC Forms 10-K and 10-K/A. No new information on the TAE merger. Q1 revenue was only $871,000, while the company reported a $405.9 million net loss. Also given is executive compensation, if you are into that type of voyeurism. The Wall Street Journal reports on the recent leadership shake-up within TMTG.
American Fusion, the first public fusion company, files SEC Form 8-K. It sold two phase noise analyzers to the Canadian Department of National Defence for $58,000. A single institutional accredited investor funded $793,000 through a stock warrant.
Government
South Korea launches its fifth basic fusion-energy plan, with a 56-member committee and a stated goal of demonstrating fusion power generation in the 2030s.
UKAEA releases its Fusion Futures Industry Capability Report and Fusion Futures End of Year Report 2024–2026. These are reports on progress in the UK to develop a domestic fusion industry.
UK Fusion Energy and Korea partner to scale superconducting cable manufacturing. I wonder how this works with Tokamak Energy’s STEP partnership.