FIA Urges Prioritization of Commercializing Fusion Energy in U.S. FY25 Budget

On March 26th, the Fusion Industry Association (FIA) sent a letter to Dr. Kung, Acting Director of the Office of Science and Deputy Director for Science Programs at the U.S. Department of Energy, urging the prioritization of commercializing fusion energy in the United States in the FY25 budget.

There are four key programs within the Energy & Water Appropriations Bill that are critical to deploying commercial fusion within the next decade: the Milestone-Based Fusion Energy Development Program; Alternative and Enabling Concepts (including INFUSE); FIRE (Fusion Innovation and Research Engine) Collaboratives; and Prioritize Building Infrastructure and Commercially Relevant Research.

For the last eight years, with broad bipartisan support, Congress has supported increase appropriations in fusion research, and authorized the Department of Energy’s Office of Science research at $1.05 billion in funding for the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences. While the FIA supports this higher level of funding, we understand that the recently-passed Congressional budget allocates $790 million to fusion energy sciences, the same as 2024. Within the guidelines provided by Congress, it is important that the Department of Energy supports commercially-relevant research and initiates new programs to build the infrastructure that would support a commercial fusion program, in line with the recommendations from the fusion community’s Long Range Plan, delivered in 2021 at the request of the Trump Administration. Only by aligning the program to the needs of commercial fusion can the US and private companies achieve the shared goal of deploying the first fusion power plants in the early 2030s.

By putting a down payment in FY25 on these commercially-relevant programs, the U.S. can assert American leadership in not only the accelerating fusion industry, but in the global energy landscape.

You can read the full letter and a background explainer below.

March 26, 2025