Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Japanese fusion tech firm Kyoto Fusioneering (KF) have launched a strategic partnership to build UNITY-3, a world-leading facility in Tennessee for testing the crucial systems that will produce fuel for commercial fusion power plants. This public-private collaboration, anchored by a new U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) agreement, aims to de-risk and accelerate the path to sustainable fusion energy by tackling one of the field’s hardest engineering challenges.
The dream of fusion energy—unlocking the power that fuels the sun—relies on more than just containing a star in a bottle. It requires a self-sustaining cycle, where the reactor breeds its own tritium fuel. The component that makes this possible is called a breeding blanket, a complex system that surrounds the fusion plasma, captures energy, and generates new fuel. Now, a powerful new alliance is forming to turn blanket concepts into validated, real-world technology. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the DOE’s largest science lab, is joining forces with the private fusion engineering pioneer Kyoto Fusioneering to construct unprecedented testing infrastructure that will put these critical components through their paces.
The cornerstone of the collaboration is the planned UNITY-3 facility, which will be sited at ORNL in Tennessee. As reported by the lab, this facility will be capable of testing blanket systems in “prototypic fusion nuclear conditions,” a vital step no existing facility can fully accomplish. “Moving breeding blanket technology from theory to real-world application is crucial in realizing a path to fusion energy,” said Troy Carter, director of ORNL’s Fusion Energy Division. He emphasized that combining ORNL’s deep expertise with KF’s specialized engineering and existing test platforms will strengthen the entire public-private fusion ecosystem.
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This partnership operationalizes a key DOE strategy to “Build-Innovate-Grow” by leveraging international allies and private sector innovation. “Fusion energy represents a transformational opportunity for our energy future,” stated Dr. Darío Gil, DOE Under Secretary for Science, in the ORNL announcement. “This partnership reflects DOE’s commitment to working with trusted allies and the private sector to build critical infrastructure, strengthen American competitiveness, and deliver real, measurable progress.”
Kyoto Fusioneering, a privately-funded technology group, brings a unique suite of capabilities to the table. It is already building a global network of test facilities, including UNITY-1 in Japan for blanket thermal cycling and UNITY-2 in Canada for deuterium-tritium fuel cycle testing. UNITY-3 at ORNL will complete this triad by adding the essential nuclear environment. “Partnering with ORNL allows us to tackle one of fusion’s hardest remaining cross-cutting challenges: validating breeding blanket performance in a nuclear environment,” explained Bibake Uppal, Vice-President of Kyoto Fusioneering America.
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The work directly addresses critical gaps identified in the DOE’s Fusion Science & Technology Roadmap. By advancing the technology readiness of tritium breeding and fuel cycle systems, the collaboration aims to drive down risk for future Fusion Pilot Plant (FPP) programs. The partnership is not starting from scratch; the organizations already collaborate through DOE’s INFUSE and FIRE programs, working on liquid metal blanket concepts and materials research.
Beyond building hardware, the agreement includes co-developing plans for technology commercialization and facilitating exchanges of technical expertise and personnel. It signifies a concrete move beyond theoretical design into the rigorous engineering validation required to make fusion power a commercial reality. By uniting a national lab’s foundational research with a private company’s focused engineering mission, this partnership is laying the literal groundwork for the fuel cycle that will sustain the fusion power plants of tomorrow.
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