Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program

The summary for the Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the Office of Science, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program: Fusion energy is a potentially safe, abundant, zero-carbon-emitting source of reliable primary energy. Major recent worldwide advances in the science[1],[2],[3] and technology[4] of fusion energy, the emergence of a strong and growing private fusion sector in the United States and abroad,[5] and the objective of achieving “net-zero” global carbon emissions by 2050[6] have made the acceleration of fusion energy research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) a national priority. Augmenting the present scientific mission of the Office of Science (SC) Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) program with supporting “the development of a competitive fusion power industry in the U.S.” was both authorized in the Energy Act of 2020 and consistent with the recommendations of recent community-informed expert studies and reports, such as the 2020 Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC) Long-Range Plan Powering the Future[7] and the 2021 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) report Bringing Fusion to the U.S. Grid.[8] The latter helped motivate the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and DOE to co-host a summit on Developing a Bold Decadal Vision for Commercial Fusion Energy.[9] A common theme among these recent activities was the recognition that public-private partnerships (PPPs) present an opportunity to accelerate fusion energy RD&D. A DOE-sponsored Workshop on Fusion Energy Development via Public-Private Partnerships was held recently (June 1–3, 2022); workshop presentations are posted publicly on the FES website.[10] This FOA invites applications for a new milestone-based fusion development program (as authorized in the Energy Act of 2020), which is a key component of the bold decadal vision to accelerate fusion energy RD&D in partnership with the private sector. Applications may be submitted for applied R&D to resolve scientific and technological issues toward the successful design of a fusion pilot plant (FPP).[11] [1] https://www.llnl.gov/news/national-ignition-facility-experiment-puts-researchers-threshold-fusion-ignition. [2] H. Abu-Shawareb et al., “Lawson Criterion for Ignition Exceeded in an Inertial Fusion Experiment,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 075001 (2022); https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00391-1. [3] https://www.euro-fusion.org/news/2022/european-researchers-achieve-fusion-energy-record. [4] https://news.mit.edu/2021/MIT-CFS-major-advance-toward-fusion-energy-0908; https://cfs.energy/news-and-media/cfs-commercial-fusion-power-with-hts-magnet. [5] The Global Fusion Industry in 2022, Fusion Companies Survey by the Fusion Industry Association. [6] https://www.iea.org/reports/net-zero-by-2050. [7] https://science.osti.gov/-/media/fes/fesac/pdf/2020/202012/FESAC_Report_2020_Powering_the_Future.pdf [8] https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/25991/bringing-fusion-to-the-us-grid [9] https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/news-updates/2022/03/15/fact-sheet-developing-a-bold-vision-for-commercial-fusion-energy and https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/news-updates/2022/04/19/readout-of-the-white-house-summit-on-developing-a-bold-decadal-vision-for-commercial-fusion-energy [10] https://science.osti.gov/fes/Community-Resources/Workshop-Reports [11] An FPP should demonstrate a significant amount of net fusion electricity (e.g., >50 MWe) for >3 continuous hours (i.e., phase 1b of the NASEM report in footnote 8) with a timely path to one full power year (i.e., phase 2 of the NASEM report), at a total capital cost that can attract private funding.