ORNL, Kyoto Fusioneering to develop fusion technology test facility in East Tennessee

The Department of Energy (DOE) has officially committed funding to establish UNITY-3, a world-class fusion breeding blanket test facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), with Kyoto Fusioneering (KF) relocating its U.S. headquarters to Tennessee to help build and operate it. The facility is part of the recent public-private strategic partnership established between DOE, ORNL and KF to build critical fusion infrastructure required for commercial fusion energy.

UNITY-3 will be the newest facility in KF and its partners' existing Unique Integrated Testing Facility™ (UNITY) Program, a global ecosystem of dedicated test platforms for fusion blanket and fuel cycle subsystems, including the UNITY-1 blanket and thermal cycle test facility operational in Japan and the UNITY-2 deuterium-tritium fuel cycle facility under development in Canada.

Breeding blankets are a critical component of fusion reactors, responsible for capturing energy from fusion neutrons and producing tritium, an isotope of hydrogen used as fuel in a fusion reaction. UNITY-3 will be a first-of-its-kind accelerator-based breeding blanket test facility capable of generating high-energy neutrons at 14 megaelectronvolts (MeV), typical of those produced by a burning plasma. The strong neutron source will enable researchers to evaluate candidate commercial blanket designs in fusion-like conditions and validate the computational models used to simulate tritium fuel production.

"Oak Ridge National Laboratory has helped lead the nation in nuclear science advancements for more than eight decades, and fusion is an important part of that legacy," said ORNL Director Stephen Streiffer. "Pairing Kyoto Fusioneering's deep expertise in fusion technology and integrated systems with ORNL's strengths in neutron science, materials, advanced manufacturing, and computing gives the United States a place to answer one of fusion's hardest questions - how breeding blankets perform in a real nuclear environment. We're proud to partner on UNITY-3 and to help build the shared infrastructure the fusion community depends on."

Establishing UNITY-3 at ORNL supports the priorities outlined in DOE's Fusion Science and Technology Roadmap to develop the scientific basis and enabling technologies to make fusion a reality, and expands the laboratory's capabilities in tritium handling, blanket design and high-energy neutron science.

"ORNL and Kyoto Fusioneering share a common goal of accelerating the technologies needed to make fusion energy a practical power source," said Troy Carter, director of ORNL's Fusion Energy Division. "This collaboration will establish a truly unique resource for the global fusion community to test innovative blanket concepts and advance our understanding of the fusion fuel cycle. We welcome KF to East Tennessee and look forward to developing our partnership over the coming years."

UNITY-3 will be instrumented with advanced sensors capable of measuring neutron energies and tritium production levels with unprecedented sensitivity and precision. These high-fidelity measurements will help train and validate AI-accelerated digital twins of breeding blanket concepts and advance the technologies needed for fusion systems to create their own fuel.

"Every D-T fusion power plant being designed assumes a breeding blanket that works - yet no one has ever validated one under real fusion-nuclear conditions. UNITY-3 is where that changes: a shared proving ground that replaces assumptions with measured data for the entire industry," said Bibake Uppal, president of Kyoto Fusioneering America. "We came to Oak Ridge because nowhere else brings together the fusion nuclear science and computing this challenge demands."

Read the partner releases to learn more about UNITY-3 and KF's move to East Tennessee:

• Kyoto Fusioneering - Kyoto Fusioneering to Relocate U.S. HQ to Tennessee and Deliver UNITY-3 with ORNL, a First-of-Its-Kind Facility to De-Risk Fusion Technology
• TN Department of Economic & Community Development - Kyoto Fusioneering to Relocate U.S. Headquarters, Establish Fusion Operations in Oak Ridge

Kyoto Fusioneering is the world's premier fusion technology and integrated systems developer. It delivers essential plasma heating, breeding blanket, power generation, and tritium fuel cycle systems to advanced fusion programs worldwide. KF operates globally across Japan, U.S., U.K., Europe, and a joint venture in Canada. Visit us at kyotofusioneering.com. Join the conversation on X, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE's Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. DOE's Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit energy.gov/science.