In the fusion power world, most of the attention gets lavished on the reactors themselves, where atoms fuse to unleash enormous amounts of energy. But a fusion reactor can’t run for long without a lot of other equipment, and building a fusion reactor is expensive enough on its own. Plenty of startups are happy to let someone else handle the rest.
Among the dozens of companies in the emerging fusion power supply chain, few specialists are bigger than Kyoto Fusioneering. The Japan-based company has raised $121 million in committed capital, according to FusionX. Now it has landed grants from the U.S. Department of Energy and the state of Tennessee to build a prototype fuel breeding device at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).
Alongside the announcement, Kyoto Fusioneering exclusively told TechCrunch that it’s moving its U.S. headquarters to Oak Ridge.
The startup has emerged as a key player in the fusion power industry. Over half of fusion startups have said they plan to work with external suppliers like Kyoto Fusioneering on fuel cycle technologies, according to a recent Fusion Industry Association survey.
Kyoto Fusioneering’s forthcoming device, called Unity-3, is being developed with ORNL and will test a fuel cycle technology known as a breeding blanket. Breeding blankets harvest energy from the fusion reactor while also generating fresh fusion fuel.
