(ORNL: Oak Ridge, TN) -- The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory will team up with six of eight companies that are advancing designs and research and development for fusion power plants with the mission to achieve a pilot-scale demonstration of fusion within a decade.

Rising energy demands and the need for zero-carbon generation is driving research on fusion energy production to provide an abundant, inherently safe, non-carbon-emitting energy source for the planet.

“The start of this program represents an exciting step forward for fusion research in the U.S.,” says Phil Snyder, interim director of ORNL’s Fusion Energy Division in the Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate. “ORNL has a key role to play here—both directly in DOE’s Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program, and indirectly by building up the scientific and technical foundation that fusion energy development depends upon.”

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