Bipartisan bill aims to promote nuclear fusion development

Sens. Maria Cantwell (D., Wash.) and John Curtis (R., Utah) have introduced a bill that would enable nuclear fusion energy technologies to have access to the federal advanced manufacturing production tax credit.

The companion version of the bill was introduced in the House by Reps. Carol Miller (R., W.Va.), Suzan DelBene (D., Wash.), Claudia Tenney (R., N.Y.), and Don Beyer (D., Va.)

The Fusion Advanced Manufacturing Parity Act extends the federal advanced manufacturing production credit (45X) by adding a 25 percent tax credit for companies that are domestically manufacturing fusion energy components.

It also broadly defines eligibility, including those components that benefit the entire fusion industry, such as superconducting magnets, plasma vacuum vessels, high-voltage capacitors, and fusion heating systems.

Critical minerals: The legislation also updates the federal critical minerals list to include fusion-relative materials, including deuterium, tritium, helium-3, lithium compounds, tungsten, and vanadium.

"Providing tax incentives for fusion components will help ensure that the fusion supply chain will also be manufactured and create jobs in the Pacific Northwest," Cantwell, the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, said in a statement.

The Trump administration has been pushing advanced nuclear reactor development under four executive orders in May that are seeking to streamline and expedite the regulatory approval process at the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.