Type One Energy, Tokamak Energy launch UK-US fusion partnership
Private-sector alliance targets fusion commercialization using British industrial capabilities and advanced US stellarator technology
Britain and the United States are deepening their fusion energy partnership as Type One Energy, Tokamak Energy and AECOM launched a new consortium aimed at developing the UK’s first private-sector-led fusion power plant project.
The partnership reflects a broader shift in fusion strategy on both sides of the Atlantic, as governments and companies move beyond experimental science programs toward commercially deployable energy infrastructure backed by industrial partnerships and private capital, according to a May 6 announcement.
“Fusion needs to be delivered, not just developed. This Consortium brings together the core industrial capabilities in the UK and US required to deploy real-world fusion power plant projects that are commercially viable,” said Chris Mowry, chief executive of Type One Energy.
“By aligning fusion technology, advanced manufacturing and power plant engineering, we are closing the gap between today’s energy innovation and tomorrow’s energy infrastructure.”
The new UK Infinity Fusion Consortium combines Type One Energy’s 400 MWe Infinity Two stellarator fusion power plant design, Tokamak Energy’s high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnet capabilities and AECOM’s infrastructure engineering and construction-management expertise. The partners said the initiative is designed to create a commercially credible fusion deployment pathway aligned with the UK government’s recently announced UK Fusion Strategy.
The consortium also reflects growing UK-US cooperation in advanced technologies. During an address to the US Congress last week, King Charles III said the two countries were combining “talent and resources” in areas including fusion, quantum computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and drug discovery.
Mowry said the initiative supports British and American ambitions to become leaders in commercial fusion deployment while building an industrial ecosystem capable of supporting future projects at scale.
At a London event last month, Mowry said Type One Energy’s strategy focuses on combining deployable technologies, industrial partnerships and commercially realistic business models rather than pursuing another decades-long experimental program.
The company describes this approach as FusionDirect™, a commercialization strategy designed to shorten deployment timelines through advanced manufacturing, modern computational physics and partner-intensive execution models.
Type One Energy, established in 2019, is led by fusion scientists involved in earlier stellarator programs together with executives experienced in commercializing energy technologies. The company said its approach aims to provide a lower-risk and capital-efficient pathway toward commercial fusion deployment over the coming decade.
Tokamak Energy, founded in 2009 as a spinout from the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), is one of the world’s leading developers of HTS and fusion technologies. A major part of its business focuses on end-to-end HTS system capabilities through its subsidiary Ridgway Machines.
Tennessee blueprint
At Fusion Fest in London on April 14, Mowry discussed how the company’s commercialization strategy evolved into a deployment partnership with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), one of the largest public utilities in the United States.
The fireside chat was moderated by Alok Jha, science and technology editor at The Economist, during the Economist Impact-organized event.
Mowry said Type One Energy was established slightly more than three years ago around the idea that advances in enabling technologies, industrial capabilities and commercialization structures made it possible to take a “direct shot on goal” toward fusion deployment.
“The energy industry is interested in fusion because it brings this complement to renewables, in the sense that renewables are intermittent energy supply, and power grids for them to be stable and reliable, need an on-demand, baseload source of energy,” he said. “So you need to think about this thing from the end market perspective.”
The company’s Tennessee deployment project has become a central element of that strategy.
“We intend to remain a technology OEM [original equipment manufacturer], pure play. We’re not going to get involved in building power plants. We’re not going to get involved in operating them,” Mowry said. “Those are things that are very hard to do, incredibly capital intensive. And the good thing is, people already do those.”
Under the partnership structure, TVA would operate the future fusion plant while Type One Energy would supply the fusion technology platform.
“So we would be the technology provider, just as Rolls-Royce provides the reactor system for the SMRs [small modular reactors], but they’re not going to build or operate those power plants,” he said.
The Bull Run project in eastern Tennessee is being developed alongside Oak Ridge National Laboratory at the site of a former coal-fired power plant. Type One Energy said the Infinity One stellarator testbed will validate the operating efficiency, reliability, maintainability and affordability of its fusion pilot plant design.
The May 6 consortium announcement said the proposed UK Infinity Two deployment project would build on engineering and operational experience gained through the TVA partnership. The Tennessee deployment is targeted for commercial operation in 2034.
Type One Energy said the UK project would also leverage Britain’s existing fusion supply-chain capabilities, regulatory expertise and industrial infrastructure developed through the government-backed STEP Fusion programme.
Grid-scale fusion
A major part of the commercialization debate at Fusion Fest centered on regulation and whether fusion should continue to be treated similarly to nuclear fission.
“Licensing for fusion, at least to the degree that it’s been established in the UK and in the US, is of course very different than fission,” Mowry said. “We’re not talking about creating a new regulatory framework from whole cloth. Basically, we’re repurposing something that already exists.”
He said fusion regulation in Britain relies more heavily on existing environmental and safety structures rather than the more extensive regulatory systems used for fission reactors.
“The process has really been about educating them about what a fusion power plant is,” he said. “They understand the things that are relevant for them, which really come down to two things: how you control tritium and make sure you don’t exceed regulatory limits and radiation.”
Mowry also argued that stellarators offer operational characteristics that make them attractive for utility-scale electricity generation.
“The stellarator was demonstrated to operate in a stable and continuous manner. Once you turn it on, it just sits there,” he said. “For people who build and operate power plants for a living, that’s a pretty compelling value.”
He said future electricity grids would still require reliable baseload generation even as renewable energy capacity expands.
“Renewables are an intermittent energy supply, and power grids, for them to be stable and reliable, need an on-demand, baseload source of energy. That’s really the promise of fusion,” he said.
Mowry also stressed that fusion commercialization would require the development of an entirely new industrial workforce and maintenance ecosystem.
“Operating a fusion power plant is going to be very different than operating a research facility,” he said. “Nobody’s going to buy a power plant that runs for 10 months, and then it has a two-year shutdown period.”
The UK Infinity Fusion Consortium said its long-term plans include broader participation from British construction, finance, manufacturing and power-sector partners as the project moves toward commercialization.