Great Lakes FusionX Conference Highlights
FusionX Great Lakes spotlighted the capital, policy, and startups shaping fusion’s path. SHINE, Realta Fusion, and DOE leaders shared insights on commercialization.
The FusionX Conferences “exist to facilitate the sustained and efficient allocation of capital to fusion, by connecting capital providers – financial investors, strategic investors and others – with opportunities in fusion energy and its related technologies” (FusionXInvest website). They have a number of “roadshows” planned during 2025, including this one in the Great Lakes area, and events in Japan, Korea, and Singapore.
Fusion Energy – Why Now?
The initial panel was focused on why fusion is important today, and who are the key players in the fusion energy ecosystem. Panelists include Christian Bjelland (Lowercarbon Capital), Michael Ginsberg (Tokamak Energy), John Kermath (London Green City), Bibake Uppal (Kyoto Fusioneering America Ltd.), and Stuart Allen (FusionXInvest). One of the important points that the panel brought out is that understanding the economics of fusion energy is critical in determining which companies will be successful versus not. This is especially important when looking at commercial companies in the fusion space.
They also highlighted the various phases that commercial fusion companies must achieve on the road to commercial fusion energy/electricity, including Q>1 (positive energy output), Q>1 operation over an extended time, and providing electricity reliably with an LCOE (levelized cost of energy) that is both profitable and economic. Just as importantly is whether fusion companies can find derivative uses of their technology that can make money before fusion achieves a sustained LCOE that makes sense. Finally, they discussed the benefits of fusion relative to the world’s need for energy (especially clean energy), and the changes in life on Earth that fusion can help achieve.
U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) and Fusion Energy
The second panel discussed the current and future role of the U.S. Federal Government (particularly the U.S. DoE) in advancing fusion energy. This discussion was between Christian Newton (U.S. DoE Office of Science) and Michael Ginsberg (Tokamak Energy). Per Christian, the two primary interests of the DoE Office of Science are artificial intelligence (AI) and fusion energy. He talked about the Fusion Milestone Program, the Infuse Program, and the FIRES program as ways to help industry derisk fusion research and the commercialization of fusion. The total government investment in fusion energy today is about $800 million per year, which Christian acknowledged is well under what the Chinese government is investing in fusion energy development.
One of the areas that Christian saw was critical to spurring fusion on is to cut the “red tape” in getting things done between the DoE and various organizations involved in fusion, including national labs, research universities, and private fusion companies. The other area which he is interested in is creating synergies with other “aligned” (i.e., non-adversarial) countries such as the UK, Japan, Korea, and the EU. Finally, Christian stated the importance of helping companies move forward, rather than not “picking winners” between the different fusion approaches.
Midwest Fusion Companies: SHINE Technologies and Realta Fusion
Shine Technologies was represented by their CEO Greg Piefer. The company was started to look at new ways to create energy for the world; Shine’s approach was to first look at the challenges to creating fusion machines that are cost-competitive. Because of this, Shine started looking at derivative products based on fusion that they could use to generate capital, derisk their technologies, and scale up their efforts. The primary focus was on “how do I sell neutrons” to customers that need them (neutrons can be sold for a much higher price than electricity can). The primary markets that they are going after include: neutron isotope production for medical uses (replacing fission reactors to do this); and creation of materials such as molybdenum-99 (used for medical imaging) from nuclear fission waste. This is what attracted (University of Wisconsin) Alumni Ventures to invest in SHINE.
On potential supply chain companies, Greg stated that fusion supply chain companies must be “way better” at building their specific technology than SHINE (or other companies) are, as well as being OK with taking risks while producing their product(s) consistently. The key is doing a few things (or products) exceptionally well and consistently, being excited about it, and being able to do so long-term.
Kieran Furlong (CEO of Realta Fusion) is another Wisconsin company that emerged from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was funded by UW-related investment funds (Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation Ventures, represented by Greg Keenan). Realta is building a magnetic-mirror fusion machine, which they believe is more scalable versus tokamaks; it “mirrors” their philosophy that “you start simple, and make it simpler”. Realta is also focused on producing industrial process heat, rather than just electricity, from fusion energy. This is also (at least) in part because power utilities (and in a larger sense, the power grid) are highly regulated, which tends to make innovation much slower than it would otherwise be. Datacenters are also an interesting captive energy user that Realta looks to work directly with as they go forward.
Realta spun out of a program at UW-Madison called “WHAM” (Wisconsin HTS Axisymmetric Mirror) that was an ARPA-E program funded in 2020 to create very high-power magnetic fields (17 Tesla).
The biggest challenge of “spinning out” while staying connected with the University’s efforts was making sure that there was benefit for both parties. This is a little different than the relationship that Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS; the provider of superconducting magnets for WHAM) has with MIT, where there is a “clear line or fence” separating the two parties. The relationship between WARF (who manages licensed IP for UW-Madison) and Realta continues to move forward well, and is one of the reasons that they have spun out 3 fusion companies.
Join us August 12 for Fusion 2035: The 10-Year Shot Clock, a half-day webinar featuring leaders from across the fusion ecosystem.
