Devens, MA, August 10, 2023 – Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) today announced the U.S. Department of Energy’s Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) program has awarded the company three new grants to fund research and development projects with the University of California at Berkeley, Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, and University of California at Los Angeles. The INFUSE award program is designed to accelerate fusion energy development through public-private research partnerships.
The newly-announced CFS awards will support the following projects:
- Electrochemical evaluation of hydrogen concentration and diffusivity in FLiBe. This program will measure the behavior of tritium, a key fusion fuel, in FLiBe, which CFS’ ARC fusion power plant will use to transfer thermal energy, cool and shield components, and breed tritium.
- Deuterium retention in boron dust. This program will examine how boron, which is typically applied to the plasma-facing surfaces in tokamaks, traps deuterium, another key fusion fuel.
- Informing ARC divertor design and plasma facing material selection through integrated modeling. This program will evaluate the ability of material candidates to survive the demanding environment of an ARC power plant divertor.
“As Co-Chair of the Congressional Fusion Energy Caucus, I have consistently supported the critically important INFUSE program, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to see federal funding from this program flow to Commonwealth Fusion Systems here in the Third District,” said Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03). “Combined with the recent investment from the Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program I authored, this funding will help Commonwealth Fusion Systems continue spearheading the effort to unlock commercialized fusion energy, a virtually unlimited source of carbon-free power.”
To date, CFS has received 21 INFUSE awards, and has past or present collaborative projects with twelve U.S. National Labs and universities.
First established in 2019, the 2023 INFUSE awards total $4.6 million and funded 18 projects at U.S. National Labs and universities. The program is sponsored by the Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) program office within DOE’s Office of Science and is focused on accelerating fusion energy development through public-private research partnerships. The projects for the 2023 INFUSE awardees were selected through a competitive peer review process managed by the INFUSE leadership team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
