ORNL to partner with Type One Energy, UT on world-class facility to validate next-gen fusion

(Press-News.org) The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Type One Energy and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT), are partnering to establish a world-class facility that will drive American innovation and move fusion energy closer to reality. 

This high-heat flux (HHF) facility, located at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Bull Run Energy Complex in East Tennessee, will evaluate how materials react under extreme conditions in a fusion device. The HHF facility will accelerate the development of plasma-facing components (PFCs), which experience the harshest operational conditions in fusion energy devices, and enable both private and public entities to qualify and validate the materials used in fusion pilot plant designs.

The facility will be only the second, and by far the most powerful, of its kind in the United States, capable of replicating the high-heat flux present in fusion devices. It will also be the only domestic facility to include pressurized helium gas cooling, the coolant of choice for many U.S.-based fusion concepts. 

“This unique collaboration of breakthrough science, industry innovation and academic leadership will result in the creation of a national facility critical to the success of realizing commercial fusion,” said ORNL Director Stephen Streiffer. “As the Oak Ridge Corridor continues to serve as the hub of nuclear and fusion energy development, ORNL is excited to play a role in this pivotal next step in the future of fusion.”

DOE Fusion Energy Sciences, Tennessee nuclear community support The project will use investments from DOE’s Fusion Energy Sciences program within the Office of Science, Type One Energy and the state of Tennessee. The facility will be built at TVA's Bull Run Energy Complex in Clinton, the site of Type One Energy’s Infinity One stellarator testbed and potential location of the first Infinity Two fusion power plant. 

“This collaboration and the high-heat flux facility at TVA’s Bull Run site further advance this region’s reputation as a leader in fusion innovation,” said CEO Christofer Mowry of Type One Energy. “The DOE, ORNL and UT are playing important roles in advancing America’s commercial fusion sector.” 

The facility will leverage the significant investments already made in fusion materials and technology in East Tennessee, including UT’s expertise in fusion materials design and ORNL’s fusion materials development program, materials characterization capabilities, and Manufacturing Demonstration Facility. 

The Clinton site will function as a fusion development campus through the projects between ORNL, Type One Energy, UT, and TVA and further complement the ongoing research collaborations between the institutions, cementing East Tennessee as a regional hub of fusion research and future manufacturing center for PFCs and other advanced components for future fusion plants.

“It’s exciting to witness the convergence of science and innovation toward a commercially viable fusion industry in the U.S. We very much look forward to the insights gleaned from these partnerships and the realization of real-world impacts toward making fusion a viable energy source for the future,” said Joe Hoagland, interim associate laboratory director for ORNL’s Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate.

Fusion facility to test materials at temperatures hotter than the sun The facility fulfills a critical need identified in DOE’s Fusion Science & Technology Roadmap to deliver domestic HHF capabilities to advance the understanding of materials performance and lifetime limits in containing plasma hotter than the sun. This project complements ORNL’s Materials Plasma Exposure Experiment (MPEX) currently under construction, that will answer key plasma-material interaction science questions and help develop robust materials for PFCs. 

The collaborative team is targeting a steady state heat load of more than 10 megawatts per square meter on the subcomponent surface – similar to the heat flux inside some rocket engines – using electron-beam technology. The high-heat flux facility will also be novel for its inclusion of pressurized helium gas cooling, which is a leading candidate coolant for fusion devices, including Type One Energy’s Infinity Two fusion power plant concept, due to its high maximum operating temperature, stability in prototypical fusion conditions, and chemical inertness with blanket components.

Brian Wirth, UT Nuclear Engineering Department Head and UT-ORNL Governor’s Chair Professor said, “UT is excited to expand our partnership with Type One Energy and ORNL to build this high-heat flux facility in East Tennessee. This partnership and facility will enable our students and faculty to contribute to materials and technology development to support the deployment of fusion power to the grid and provide research and career opportunities. 

“This is yet another opportunity to expand our unique East Tennessee nuclear ecosystem, which has strong support of the local community and public-private partnerships to enable the continued development and expansion of both advanced fission and fusion energy,” Wirth said. 

The next steps in the project are to finalize the design, begin procurement and start assembly. TVA is currently conditioning the site for the facility, and the project is slated for completion at the end of 2027. 

ORNL is committed to supporting U.S. energy needs by pursuing strategic research that advances a wide variety of affordable, abundant and competitive nuclear technologies, and strengthens national security. The lab’s scientific expertise and world-class facilities are often the first step in advancing nuclear energy innovations. 

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.

Additional Quotes:

"Type One Energy was the first company to receive the state’s nuclear funding in 2024, and we remain committed to supporting their work, which further solidifies Tennessee’s role as the epicenter of next-generation nuclear innovation. Our state is also fortunate to have the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, as a world-class partner, and we are proud to work alongside them to bring this project to life. Following the announcement from the U.S. Department of Energy, I am excited for the growth, investment and opportunity this new facility will generate regionally and statewide.” — Deputy Governor and TNECD Commissioner Stuart C. McWhorter

“Through this partnership and others across the nuclear and fusion sectors, East Tennessee will have all the ingredients needed to develop components for next-generation fusion pilot plants.” — Zeke Unterberg, ORNL fusion materials R&D lead 

END