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Dan Yurman
Dan Yurman
Expert Member
Top Contributor
Tue, Jul 8

Google Bets on the Future of Fusion with Commonwealth and TEA

  • Google Bets on the Future of Fusion with Commonwealth

  • Google’s Investment in TAE Fusion

  • Google v. Microsoft in Commitments to Fusion Power

  • DOE Announces First Microreactor Experiments in INL DOME Test Bed

  • GLE Submits NRC License Application for Paducah Laser Enrichment Facility

  • Partnership Set for US Deployment of SOLO Microreactor

  • CORE POWER Charts a Course for Floating Nuclear Power in Greece

  • DARPA’s DRACO Nuclear Propulsion Project cancelled in NASA Budget

Google Bets on the Future of Fusion with Commonwealth

Search engine giant Google announced this week it is playing a long game of betting big on the arrival of commercial scale fusion power, within the next decade or sooner, to provide electricity for its data centers especially very large so-called “hyperscale data center” facilities.

Google inked a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS). It also gives Google rights to power offtake from additional CFS reactors when they are built.

Google previously inked a nuclear power deal for reactors and their power with Kairos, a developer of an advanced nuclear fission reactors. However, Google’s deal with CFS is its first PPA level commitment for electricity from fusion power. Google has previously invested in TAE Fusion but the deal does not include a PPA.

The Google/CFS PPA agreement is for 200 MW of power from CFS’ planned first-of-a-kind (FOAK) fusion reactor to be built in Chesterfield County, VA, at the James River Industrial Park, immediately southwest of Richmond, VA. The site is owned by Dominion Energy and located near a retiring coal plant.

CFS said it expects will put power on the grid from a fusion reactor operating on the Virginia site in the early 2030s. Like the nearly two-dozen other fusion developers identified in the 2025 Fusion Industry Association report, CFS is in a race to attain net fusion energy. This is a measure of the net amount of energy produced by a fusion reactor that exceeds the among of energy going into it to create the fusion plasma from which heat is transferred to generate electricity.

According to a CFS press statement the advantages of the chosen site include a receptive community and workforce with growing demand for electricity as well as its proximity to transportation, to population centers, and, most importantly, to an existing grid connection. According to the press release from CFS, “Dominion Energy Virginia will provide nonfinancial collaboration, including development and technical expertise as well as leasing rights for the proposed site.”

Google also made an equity investment in CFS. The size of Google’s new investment was not disclosed. CFS co-founder and CEO Bob Mumgaard indicated to Wall Street analysts it “would be comparable to the previous Series B funding round of $1.8 billion in 2021.”

This comment, given the size of the Series B round, may be an indication that CFS also secured commitments from other undisclosed investors along with Google’s funds. Google was one of many investors in the Series B round. However, ‘comparable’ is not the same as ‘equal.’ CFS, an MIT spin-out founded in 2018, is reported by Crunchbase to have raised over $2 billion. The company has raised the most money of any fusion startup.

The agreement between Google and CFS is anchored in CFS’ SPARC achieving net fusion energy, known as Q>1. Located at CFS’ Massachusetts headquarters, SPARC is a high magnetic field, compact version of a fusion device called a tokamak, whose design has been validated by multiple research papers and peer-reviewed by independent scientists. It is the precursor to ARC, which is designed to generate 400MW of net electricity, a level comparable to a utility-scale natural gas power plant’s output.

According to CFS, as told to TechCrunch, Sparc’s reactor uses a tokamak design, which resembles a doughnut. The D-shaped cross section is wound with high-temperature superconducting tape, which when energized, generates a powerful magnetic field that will contain and compress the superheated plasma.

In Sparc’s successor, the commercial-scale ARC, heat generated from the reaction is converted to steam to power a turbine. CFS designed its magnets in collaboration with MIT, where co-founder and CEO Bob Mumgaard worked as a researcher on fusion reactor designs and high-temperature superconductors.

IMAGE: S. Li, H. Jiang, Z. Ren, C. Xu – S. Li, H. Jiang, Z. Ren, C. Xu, “Optimal Tracking for a Divergent-Type Parabolic PDE System in Current Profile Control” , Abstract and Applied Analysis doi:10.1155/2014/940965 2014 ~ A similar image can be also found in R.A. Pitts, R.J. Buttery, S.D. Pinches, Fusion: the way ahead, Physics World 19 (2006) 20, CC BY 4.0. Wikipedia

Google’s Investment in TAE Fusion Device

Earlier this month, Google announced continued funding for TAE Technologies, a California-based fusion energy company. Google been an investor in TAE since 2015, and recently participated in TAE’s latest funding round, positioning them as a leading contender in the race to achieve fusion.

Conceptual image of a field reversed configuration. Image: Wikipedia

TAE raised more than $150 million in its June 2025 funding round, exceeding the company’s initial target for the round. Chevron Technology Ventures, Google and NEA participated in the round, among other new and existing investors.

TAE has the option to raise additional capital as part of this funding round. With $1.8 billion in equity capital raised since inception the firm comes in second behind CFS in terms of investor commitments.

In a press statement, the two firms said that since 2014, TAE and Google Research have worked together to accelerate fusion science using AI machine learning.

Google engineers worked onsite at TAE facilities to co-develop advanced plasma reconstruction algorithms, with the objective of significantly improved plasma lifetime and performance.

Google’s integration into TAE’s engineering teams has helped the company unlock a practical path to economic fusion and was instrumental in enabling the technical breakthrough that now paves the way for TAE’s next milestone: validating net energy capability in its Copernicus reactor. Google’s renewed commitment to TAE follows a thorough technical and commercial evaluation of TAE’s distinctive fusion approach.

About the TAE Fusion Reactor

TAE’s design uses a proprietary form of a field-reversed configuration, but with a unique configuration, After the two plasma shots collide in the middle of the reactor, the company bombards the plasma with particle beams to keep it spinning in a cigar shape. That improves the stability of the plasma, allowing more time for fusion to occur and for more heat to be extracted to spin a turbine to produce electricity.

Google v. Microsoft in Commitments to Fusion Power

The Google deal deals with CFS and TAE, combined, are far larger and more significant than a 2023 PPA Microsoft made with fusion developer Helion to provide Microsoft electricity from its first fusion power plant. The Helion announcement did not include an equity investment by Microsoft. Constellation will serve as the power marketer and will manage transmission for the project.

Helion latest round raised $425 million Series F in January 2025. Overall, Helion has raised $1.03 billion, according to PitchBook, putting it in third place in terms of capital raised for fusion development. Investors include Sam Altman, Reid Hoffman, KKR, BlackRock, Peter Thiel’s Mithril Capital Management, and Capricorn Investment Group.

In announcing an aggressive timeline, Helion said its the plant is expected to be online by 2028 and will target power generation of 50 MW or greater after a 1-year ramp up period. The planned operational date for this first of its kind facility is significantly sooner than typical projections for deployment of commercial fusion power.

By comparison both CFS and TAE have said they expect to produce power from the their fusion devices for customers by the early 2030s. Separately, the UK Atomic Energy Authority thinks that the target date for commercial fusion is probably 2040. The UKAEA’s Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) program aims to design and build the world’s first prototype fusion power plant by 2040.

An editor at Data Center Dynamics (DCD) raised questions in May 2023 about the feasibility of Helion’s timeline of producing commercial fusion by 2028. Peter Judge wrote. “Microsoft’s investment in fusion power will deliver overheated vapor, not actual electricity.”

In the rest of the article Judge walks through the elements of Microsoft’s deal with Helion offering sharp criticism of them. He adds that fission based small modular reactors (SMRs) from several vendors are more likely to come online in the period 2028-2030 The DCD opinion piece does not quote anyone from Helion nor Microsoft providing a rebuttal to Judge’s claims.

About the Helion Fusion Reactor

According to Helion, as told to TechCrunch, Helion’s design also uses a type of fusion reactor called a field-reversed configuration, where magnets surround a reaction chamber that looks like an hourglass with a bulge at the point where the two sides come together. At each end of the hourglass, they spin the plasma into doughnut shapes that are shot toward each other at more than 1 million mph. When they collide in the middle, additional magnets help induce fusion. When fusion occurs, it boosts the plasma’s own magnetic field, which induces an electrical current inside the reactor’s magnetic coils. That electricity is then harvested directly from the machine.

On the Web: Tech Crunch- Every fusion startup that has raised over $100M

Google’s Fission Investment in Kairos Advanced Reactor

In October 2024 Kairos Power and Google signed a Master Plant Development Agreement, creating a path to deploy a U.S. fleet of multiple advanced nuclear power projects totaling 500 MW by 2035.

Under the agreement, Kairos Power will develop, construct, and operate a series of advanced reactor plants and sell energy, ancillary services, and environmental attributes to Google under Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs).

Kairos said the units for Google will include a single 50-MW reactor, with three subsequent power plants that would each have two 75-MW reactors.

& & &

DOE Announces First Microreactor Experiments in INL DOME Test Bed

  • Westinghouse and Radiant were the initial companies selected to test their microreactor designs in DOME, the world’s first microreactor test bed at Idaho National Laboratory (INL).

  • The Department of Energy  made conditional selections for Westinghouse and Radiant to perform the first tests in the Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) facility at Idaho National Laboratory.

The DOME experiments will be the first of their kind in the world and will fast-track the deployment of American microreactor technologies. The first fueled reactor test experiment is expected to start in spring 2026. The DOME facility is located on the Arco desert about 25 miles west of Idaho Falls, ID, in the Materials Fuels Complex.

The Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) hosts the core of US nuclear energy research and development capability with an array of facilities designed for remote work on highly irradiated fuels and materials. A new fuel idea can be designed and fabricated, then tested and analyzed at MFC to better understand the effects of irradiation.

Separately, the INL also operated the Advanced Test Reactor. INL’s Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) provides nuclear fuel and materials testing capabilities for military, federal, university and industry partners and customers.

DOME Facility. Image: NRIC/INL

DOME will be the first microreactor test bed in the world and leverages existing infrastructure at Idaho National Laboratory to safely house and test fueled reactor experiments that produce up to 20 MW of thermal energy. Data collected from the experiments will be used to commercialize each reactor technology.

A scan of multiple press announcements by companies developing microreactors, e.g., less than 20 MW of electrical generation capacity, shows that eight of them, so far, have developed or are in the process of developing arrangements with the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to test their designs and, for some, also the fuels for their reactors. (NRIC Briefing on reactor designs, materials and fuels testing at INL)

Westinghouse will test the eVinci Nuclear Test Reactor to inform the development of its commercial transportable microreactor that uses advanced heat pipe technology to passively cool the reactor. The eVinci reactor is designed to produce 5MW of electricity on sites as small as two acres of land and could be used to power various applications from remote communities to mining operations or data centers. The device is designed to use 19.5% U235 TRISO fuel. 

Radiant Industries, Inc., will test the Kaleidos Development Unit to advance the company’s commercial 1.2 MW electric high-temperature gas reactor (HTGR) design as a potential replacement for diesel generators. Kaleidos is designed to operate for five years before refueling and could provide reliable backup power to hospitals, military installations, and more. The HTGR will used TRISO fuel. Helium gas transfers heat from the core.

On 06/27/27 Radiant announced that it had has completed the Conceptual Design Review (CDR) of its portable Kaleidos microreactor. The review is a significant milestone toward authorization and fueled testing of Kaleidos at Idaho National Laboratory (INL).

Scope / Duration of DOME Testing

The two reactor developers were competitively selected in 2023 to perform initial activities for potential testing in DOME. Both companies are currently working through the multi-phase DOE authorization process to support the design, fabrication, construction, and testing of each fueled reactor experiment.

The Department estimates each DOME reactor experiment will operate up to six months. The testing campaigns are self-funded by the applicants with the sequencing of experiments based on several criteria, including technology readiness, fuel availability, and a regulatory approval plan. Both companies are expected to meet certain milestones throughout the process to maintain their allotted time in DOME and to ensure efficient use of the test bed.

The DOME test bed is currently under construction and on track to receive its first experiment in early 2026. The facility is operated by DOE’s National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) , which enables access to the world-class capabilities across the Department’s national laboratories to accelerate the development of advanced reactor technologies.

DOE recently closed its first round of applications for scheduling experiments in DOME.  The next call for applications is anticipated to be in the summer of 2026.

& & &

GLE Submits NRC License Application for Paducah Laser Enrichment Facility

Global Laser Enrichment (GLE) announced the submission of its Safety Analysis Report (SAR) to the Nuclear  Regulatory Commission (NRC), marking a significant milestone for the planned Paducah, KY, Laser Enrichment Facility (PLEF). This follows GLE’s December 2024 submission of the Environmental Report, now completing GLE’s full license application for NRC review. The SAR provides a comprehensive evaluation of the PLEF’s safety measures, operational protocols, and risk mitigation strategies.

Conceptual Image of Laser Enrichment. Image: Wikiledia

GLE is seeking a license for the PLEF to re-enrich depleted uranium tails from legacy Department of Energy (DOE) gaseous diffusion plant operations to provide a new source of domestic uranium, conversion, and enrichment production.

GLE remains on track to begin re-enriching the DOE’s Paducah inventory of depleted uranium tails no later than 2030.

GLE is the first in line with the NRC to license a new enrichment facility. The PLEF licensing effort builds upon GLE’s 2012 NRC approved license for a commercial-scale laser enrichment facility in Wilmington, NC, which did not proceed due to poor market conditions at the time.

GLE anticipates an accelerated licensing timeline for the PLEF given the NRC’s prior approval and GLE’s well-characterized site. In 2024, GLE acquired 665 acres adjacent to the former Paducah. KY, Gaseous Diffusion Plant for construction of the planned PLEF.

GLE, a joint venture of Australian company Silex Systems (51%) and Cameco Corporation (49%), is the exclusive global licensee of the SILEX laser-based uranium enrichment technology, which would be deployed commercially at Paducah Laser Enrichment Facility.

The project is underpinned by a long-term agreement signed in 2016 for the sale to GLE of some 200,000 tonnes from the US Department of Energy’s inventory depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) for re-enrichment to equivalent natural grade uranium hexafluoride. The DOE has a large inventory of the material – also known as tails – from the former operations of its first-generation gaseous diffusion enrichment plants.

& & &

Partnership Set for US Deployment of SOLO Microreactor

(WNN) Italy-based micro-modular reactor developer Terra Innovatum Srl is teaming up with US engineering consultant TechSource Inc to accelerate commercialization of its SOLO microreactor in the US.

Through a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between the two companies, TechSource will accelerate the introduction of Terra Innovatum’s SOLO micro-modular reactor through supply chain and regulatory advisory support, while expanding access to potential strategic investors, customers and US agency funding programs, including deployment pathways at the US Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of Defense (DOD).

Solo Microreactor Info-Graphic. Image: Terra Innovatum

Under the terms of the agreement, Terra Innovatum and TechSource will work collaboratively on identifying and securing optimal sites for reactor assembly and deployment, optimize supply chain management, support Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) compliance, and engage with key stakeholders – including the DOE, DOD, international laboratories, industry leaders, and institutional end users. The collaboration also paves the way for potential co-investments in operational hubs, advanced manufacturing infrastructure, and strategic R&D partnerships.

Terra Innovatum co-founder and CEO Alessandro Petruzzi said, “TechSource’s deep network across US governmental agencies, expertise in nuclear material management and US regulatory knowledge will support our regulatory and commercial progress, while bolstering our federal funding and customer acquisition opportunities.”

TechSource Chairman and CEO Brian D’Andrea added: “With decades of experience supporting the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, national laboratories, and public-sector institutions, we are uniquely positioned to help accelerate the commercialisation and deployment of the SOLO micro-modular reactor.”

Terra Innovatum is developing its SOLO micro modular reactor design, intended to form the basis for a scalable modular energy platform from MWe to GWe-class. A SOLO unit is designed to deliver approximately 1 MWe. The design features a solid heterogeneous composite moderator and is intended to accommodate both traditional zircaloy-clad low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel or, when available, LEU+ and high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuels.

Heat removal is accomplished by helium gas which eliminates the need for water from the reactor coolant system. The reactor is intended to feature autonomous operation, on-line safeguards-by-design, and a defense-in-depth structure of radiological barriers with the intent to minimize or eliminate emergency planning zone requirements beyond the operational boundary.

The NRC is currently engaged in pre-application activities with Terra Innovatum. Last January Terra Innovatum submitted its regulatory engagement plan (ML25017A401) to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

The firm said in the plan it intends to apply for a license as a non-power or test reactor which is a different path than for a commercial effort to supply electricity and heat to customers. If the firm wants to seek a Part 50 or Part 52 license for a power generating reactor, it may have to retrace its steps.

The firm said it is currently negotiating with key potential industry partners a Letter of Intent to submit an application for a Construction Permit of the FOAK Research Test Reactor facility to be deployed on a site yet-to-be-determined in the US.

The firm claims that SOLO will be available globally and commercially within the next three years. Achieving this milestone will be a challenge assuming it first builds a test reactor and then pursues a commercial offering.

Terra Innovatum says it will offer “a wide range of versatile applications, providing CO2-free, behind-the-meter, and off-grid power solutions for data centers, mini-grids serving remote towns and villages, and large-scale industrial operations in hard-to-abate sectors”. It also has the ability to supply heat for industrial applications and other specialized processes, including water treatment, desalination and co-generation.

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CORE POWER Charts a Course for Floating Nuclear Power in Greece

In a step toward the deployment of Floating Nuclear Power Plants (FNPPs), CORE POWER, classification society American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), and energy consultancy Athlos Energy will explore the potential of deploying FNPPs in the Mediterranean Sea, with a specific focus on Greece.

The joint effort will assess how floating nuclear platforms,powered by small modular reactors (SMRs), can address growing energy demands in remote and coastal areas. This includes supplying grid-scale electricity to islands, supporting zero-emission port operations, and powering desalination plants to provide potable water in drought-affected regions.

While CORE power has been an energetic advocate for nuclear powered shipping, it appears to be technology agnostic for now as to which reactor type/design will best fit the various configurations that the firm presents to stakeholders.

These include nearshore power barges and offshore floating power plants. Both types are attractive to nations which has a long history of seismic events, like Greece, that would pose a risk to the safety of a land-based NPP.

http://Conceptual image of a floating NPP as a nearshore barge. Image: CORE Nuclear.

Between 1950 and 2023, Greece recorded 80 major earthquakes that caused significant economic damage, resulted in multiple fatalities, or triggered powerful tsunamis.

Nestled at the convergence of the Eurasian and African tectonic plates, Greece is one of Europe’s most seismically active regions.

“FNPPs can revolutionize the way we deliver reliable and affordable nuclear energy,” said Mikal Bøe, CEO of CORE POWER.

“By constructing and mass-assembling a fleet of FNPPs in shipyards, we can deliver clean nuclear energy on time, and on budget, solving many of the largest energy challenges we face.

Supporting Decarbonization and Energy Security

The project will develop novel FNPP Concepts of Operations (CONOPS) and generate visual models of proposed deployment sites. A central focus will be the feasibility of operating these platforms in the Aegean Sea.

“Floating nuclear power facilities show promise in supporting power grids, microgrids, industrial and port operations, and even data centers,” said ABS Chairman and CEO Christopher J. Wiernicki.

Dionysios Chionis, co-founder of Athlos Energy, added: “As Greece reconsiders its energy future, the role of nuclear power is increasingly back on the agenda. This study marks an important first step in assessing the feasibility of deploying floating nuclear reactors in the Aegean Sea.”

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DARPA’s DRACO Nuclear Propulsion Project Cancelled in NASA Budget

(Breaking Defense)The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has decided to cancel its five-year-old Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) project to develop a nuclear thermal engine for spacecraft. The move was driven by an assessment that the costs no longer match the benefits.

DRACO’s demise was first reported by Ars Technica earlier this month, based on NASA’s fiscal 2026 budget request that zeroed the program.  NASA said in a budget document;

“This budget provides no funding for Nuclear Thermal Propulsion and Nuclear Electric Propulsion projects. These efforts are costly investments, would take many years to develop, and have not been identified as the propulsion mode for deep space missions. The nuclear propulsion projects are terminated to achieve cost savings and because there are other nearer-term propulsion alternatives for Mars transit.”

Rob McHenry, DARPA deputy director, told the Mitchell Institute in late June, “When DRACO was originally conceived of, DARPA has not yet seen the precipitous decrease in launch costs that has been driven largely by SpaceX capabilities and the continued decrease that Starship offers.”

He addded that “the analysis at the time that showed that nuclear thermal was likely to be the optimal solution for a set of national security related admissions, as well as solar system exploration.”

Since then DARPA has realized that, “both of those assumptions started to get weaker and weaker. As the launch costs came down, the efficiency gain from nuclear thermal propulsion relative to the massive R&D costs necessary to achieve that technology started to look like less and less of a positive ROI [return on investment].”

About the DARPA Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Project

DRACO began life in 2020 with $10 million with a goal to develop and demonstrate a “High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) system.”

NASA was working on similar nuclear thermal propulsion rockets (NTR), and in 2023 the two agencies paired up to push the project forward. Under the agreement NASA was working on the engine; DARPA on the space vehicle.

Early on DARPA said nuclear thermal rockets, aka NTRs, offer a high thrust-to-weight ratio around 10,000 [times] greater than electric propulsion and with two-to-five times greater efficiency than in-space chemical propulsion,” according to a 2023 DARPA fact sheet.

DARPA DRACO Nuclear Power Propulsion System. Image; DARPA.

Such engines could enable long-duration, long-distance spaceflights such as to the Moon or Mars. From the Pentagon’s perspective, that could include future Space Force operations in the vast region of cislunar space between the Earth and Moon, or counterspace missions involving the need for high-speed and high-frequency maneuvers.

In April 2021 DARPA has awarded contracts for the first phase of the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program. The goal of the DRACO program is to demonstrate a nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) system above low Earth orbit in 2025. The three prime contractors are General Atomics, Blue Origin, and Lockheed Martin. The mission support/integrator of the effort was UltraSafe Nuclear which has since declared bankruptcy and has gone out of business.

See prior coverage on this blog
Nuclear Thermal Propulsion is Key Enabling Technology for DARPA Effort

McHenry said that it remains the case that NTR are more efficient than chemical propulsion systems that power today’s rocket engines — but maybe it is not by enough to outweigh the costs in future.

“That is still a potential that’s out there. But, if we can launch enough propellant cheaply enough, it’s going to take a long time to earn back that efficiency. And so the national security operational interest in the technology was decreasing proportionally to that perception of the differentiated value.”

About the name “Draco” for DARPA’s Project

NB: According to Wikipedia, Draco is a constellation in the far northern sky. Its name is Latin for dragon. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century Greek astronomer Ptolemy, and is one of the 88 modern constellations seen in night skies. The north pole of the ecliptic is in Draco. The star Draco is circumpolar from northern latitudes, meaning that it never sets and can be seen at any time of year.

So far DARPA is not reported to be investing in star ships with warp drive to visit distant stars and galaxies. NASA has sponsored some paper studies of the possibilities. Popular imagination stimulated by news media reports, and Star Trek fans, continue to fuel interest in the concept.

IMAGE: IAU and Sky & Telescope magazine (Roger Sinnott & Rick Fienberg) https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15407380

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