Fusion Fortnightly | 2026-08-13
No fluff, all facts: Dennis Whyte joins UKAEA as CEO. CFS raises another $1B. Tokamak Energy publishes its fusion pilot plant pre-conceptual design.
Companies
Commonwealth Fusion Systems raised another $1 billion of equity. Still no public information on what the total company valuation is. Oddly, this was the first round where specific investors were not named. It was mentioned that the round included pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, infrastructure investors, and industrial corporate partners, which are classes of entities that have participated in previous rounds. While the round raised last year was explicitly described as funding to complete SPARC, this round has been identified as for ARC development, site prep, and supplier development.
Tokamak Energy publishes its fusion pilot plant pre-conceptual design as part of the US Department of Energy Milestone Program. First of all, I congratulate the team on pulling this all together; it was no small feat. For those not in the know, Tokamak Energy was founded many years ago on the thesis that HTS was a game changer (same as CFS) and that a low-aspect-ratio tokamak was advantageous over a high-aspect-ratio tokamak. Not a big surprise to me, but incorporating all of the power plant considerations into the design has increased its size. The company’s first patent had a tokamak with a major radius ≤1.5 m, with 1.35 m as the main first design point. The major radius of the pre-conceptual design, ST-E1, has increased to 5 m. The diameter of the largest poloidal field coils for ST-E1 is about 30 m; for comparison, the largest ones on ITER are about 24 m. The increase in size is in no small part a result of (1) a design choice to have horizontal maintenance of machine wedges between TF coils and (2) the need to have sufficient nuclear shielding of the inner legs of the toroidal field magnets to allow them to be lifetime components. These, along with all of the integrated physics, engineering, and economic requirements, made for a big machine. Also interesting is that aspect ratio is not a big controller of the final economics of the machine: with an increase from 1.9 to 2.3, the overnight cost only increases by 5%. To me, this, along with other projects like STEP, demonstrates that going to low-aspect-ratio is not a strong lever for making tokamaks smaller. One of the potential advantages of low-aspect-ratio tokamaks is that much of the plasma current is self-driven by the plasma, although CFS’ design is a potential counter to this in showing that pulsed operation with a central solenoid could be viable as well. The final point to note is that Tokamak Energy is relying on a high normalized confinement (H98 for those in the know) compared to the empirical scaling to achieve good economics, which is an optimistic assumption.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems passed the Department of Energy Milestone Program milestones on the pre-conceptual design and technology roadmap for ARC. No info on the details yet.
Inertia, the fusion company founded by the owner of The Onion, warns about extrapolation in the fusion industry, unveils Inertia’s plans for extrapolation. The chest-thumping of NIF performance over others is a bit heavy-handed, but the assessment of the 10 miracles to demonstrate in “phase 1” for them is relatively on target. No fusion concept it without its challenges.
Fuse claims a record neutron yield of 1.27×10¹² in a single shot for a fusion company, which is false: SHINE has demonstrated 3.7×10¹³ neutrons per second effectively in steady state.
Fuse signed a five-year Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the Nevada National Security Site. It’s a framework for collaboration.
Terra Fusion reported to be raising a $10 million seed round.
Zap reports its liquid metal loop ran for 1,000 hours and updates its website. I cannot stand all the moving stuff. Is this my “I’m an old man” moment or is that just bad design?
Starlight Engine opened a nationwide Japanese search for the site of its FAST superconducting-tokamak fusion demonstration project and stated that it expects its reactor project will cost 1 trillion yen ($6.3B).
MIFTI expands LLNL collaboration. Includes alpha particle modeling and neutron diagnostics for MIFTI’s z-pinch.
Thea won a $20 million ARPA-E SCALEUP award to scale up its superconducting magnet manufacturing.
TAE Technologies signed an agreement with Black Moon Energy Corporation for helium-3 supply. Fantasy meets fantasy.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory licensed pellet-fueling technology to Type One Energy. If I’m in the market for a frozen pellet shooter, ORNL is the first place I’m shopping.
American Fusion disclosed nineteen patent applications and six patent applications. Surprised they have such a large IP budget for a penny stock company.
American Fusion appointed Texas Tech researcher Noah D’Amico as a strategic advisor. Noah, according to American Fusion, has expertise in nuclear measurements and a 4.0 GPA.
American Fusion releases its SEC Form 10-Q. I find this whole thing fascinating and am a bit disappointed I don’t have the time to fully understand what’s going on here. Some of you have reached out to me with rumors, but I won’t pass them along because they are not (yet?) supported by public evidence. In this 10-Q, they claim $58,000 of revenue, which was probably the previously reported phase-noise analyzers sold to Canada’s Department of National Defence. For the first half of 2026, AMFN spent $598,748 on corporate communications and marketing, $573,233 on consulting, $423,938 on professional (patent?) fees, and just $131,342 on R&D!
General Fusion filed a couple of SEC Schedule 13Gs and Form 3s that report on large ownership and option stakes, including: PenderFund Capital Management, a Vancouver investment manager that’s owned General Fusion shares since 2021 and has a board seat; Meteora Capital, an event-driven investment firm that has exited its position entirely; BDC Capital (Canadian Government); Norman Harrison (Board Director); Michel Laberge (founder and CSO); and Robert Crystal (VP Finance).
TAE+TMTG had an earnings call. The audit is the reason the merger S-4 has not yet been filed; it still targets closing by the end of 2026. TMTG emphasized that TAE and fusion will be the combined company’s main long-term business and capital priority.
TAE+TMTG filed SEC Form 10-Q. TMTG is now lending crypto to third parties. The Truth Social spin-off is abandoned for now. Q2 revenue was $1.67 million, up from $0.87 million in Q1. Its directly held Bitcoin and Cronos had a cost basis of $1.12 billion but a present value of only $597.7 million.
TAE+TMTG filed a couple of SEC Form 8-Ks: announced earnings call; management priorities: close TAE merger in Q4, tighten treasury management, grow media and monetize data; sees fusion as the largest component of the company after the deal; management thinks digital-asset treasury companies and prediction markets have become crowded; abandons Crypto.com prediction-market integration; and termination of the Crypto.com/Yorkville CRO treasury SPAC.
People
Dennis Whyte appointed UKAEA CEO. This is a big win for the UKAEA. Dennis has great, practical (as practical as one can be in fusion) vision and leadership. This signals to me that the UK’s present and near-term vision and funding are stronger than the US’s.
With Dennis moving to the UK, Guinevere Shaw steps into the CEO role at Rutherford Energy Ventures. The co-founders (Dennis, Andrew, and Maria) transition into Strategic Advisor roles.
Proxima Fusion appointed Ahmed Diallo as Head of Global Partnerships. Ahmed is great for this role. He’s done a lot of work at PPPL and the US Department of Energy connecting public and private fusion.
First Light Fusion promoted experimental physicist Jonathan Skidmore to Chief Scientist. Jonathan has spent the last 10 years climbing the ranks at First Light.
Government
Germany announces three national fusion hubs. Three hubs; I suppose this makes it the tricycle strategy for fusion? Marvel Fusion and Focused Energy work on the VEGA laser fusion hub. Proxima Fusion, Gauss Fusion, and the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics work on the STRIDE magnetic fusion hub. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology works on the MAT-TRIX fusion materials and fuel cycles hub. Starting support is 125 million euros from the Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space.
DOE announces awardees for the Genesis Mission. Looks like a lot of projects funded for the application of AI/ML to specific topics.
The White House’s new science policy highlights fusion as a high-level mission: “Demonstration of commercial fusion power in the United States by the mid-2030s, following the Department of Energy’s Fusion Science & Technology Roadmap.” Haven’t had the chance to read over the whole policy yet.
Fusion Industry Association and Clean Air Task Force release their principles for codes and standards for fusion. Little I disagree with in there.
ORNL and Rutherford Energy Ventures officially begin their work together. They’re starting on an 18-month project with REV helping ORNL that will result in a “technical blueprint, financial framework and operating model for a pilot Fulcrum at ORNL,” which aims to be a facility that helps address a cross-cutting issue for the fusion industry on DOE’s roadmap.
ITER announced installation of its sixth vacuum-vessel sector. The vacuum vessel is now two-thirds in place.
The UK Parliament opened an inquiry into the proposed national planning framework for fusion power infrastructure. This would give fusion plants national-priority status and broad siting freedom. Interesting to watch this as an outsider to how things like this work in the UK.
UKAEA announced £40 million for more fusion education at British universities. Good workforce development.
UKAEA set revised priorities for the government-funded JET decommissioning and repurposing program.
China’s National Natural Science Foundation held a strategic forum on fusion-reactor materials that should inform the work that gets done in the next five-year plan.