As part of the Federal government’s plan to get to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, it tasked the Department of Energy (DoE) with bolstering fusion energy commercialization – but the department needs to improve its planning and better sustain its efforts toward that goal, a Federal government watchdog report says.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report released Jan. 10 that while the Energy Department has taken some steps toward facilitating and accelerating fusion energy commercialization, its planning efforts lack specificity, and the agency isn’t maintaining initial progress made in interagency working groups.
Fusion is the process that powers the sun, and scientists aim to replicate that capability on Earth in order to produce a clean and virtually limitless energy source. Fusion is one of the five areas prioritized to meet the United States’ goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, an initiative launched by the U.S. at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27).
Following the initiative’s launch, Congress appropriated about $760 million for the Energy Department’s Office of Science’s Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) in fiscal year (FY) 2023 to support fusion activities through public-private partnerships.
According to GAO, fusion could “produce commercial electric power to help meet growing clean energy needs if technical, economic, and other challenges are overcome.”
While current commercialization investment is limited – largely due to the still immature state of fusion technology – the department reported to GAO that public-private partnerships and other efforts toward commercialization are being pursued that aren’t reflected in the funding provided by Congress.
“Officials told us that other initiatives addressing basic science and technology challenges are critical to facilitating eventual fusion energy commercialization, and officials have built connections with the private sector in ways that are not captured in commercialization funding,” said GAO.
However, progress has stalled on advancing certain key steps toward commercialization, GAO said, noting that initiatives such as the Net-Zero Game Changers – an interagency working group formed by the White House Climate Policy Office, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), and the Office of Management and Budget to identify and accelerate climate innovations – have become inactive.
GAO said that OSTP is no longer coordinating initiative meetings and warned that unclear Energy Department roles and responsibilities in fusion energy plans could delay commercialization progress.
Other planning challenges that GAO noted include the Energy Department’s incomplete timelines and strategies to address risks it identified in its most recent June 2024 fusion energy commercialization strategy.
The 2024 strategy lists identified risks that need to be addressed, including: whether current manufacturing processes and supply chains can support fusion energy; whether a sufficiently skilled workforce exists to design, build and operate fusion power plants; identifying public perception of fusion energy and its associated risks; and addressing the limited supply of tritium, a crucial fuel for fusion reactions.
“DOE’s strategy also does not translate its assessment of risks into a readiness score for adopting fusion energy technology, which DOE could use to better understand fusion energy commercialization risks,” GAO said of the Energy Department’s recent strategy.
“A DOE official told us that DOE will need to add details, such as metrics, in future documents, GAO said. “Without responding to identified risks as part of its planning efforts, DOE may not be prepared to address such risks if they materialize, potentially delaying commercialization efforts.”
While DoE’s FES office said that it plans to complete and publish a roadmap by mid-2025 to address planning gaps, finalization of that plan is pending input from the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee on how FES can align its initiatives with the net-zero emissions initiatives. The new roadmap also won’t cover all of the bases that the Energy Department will need it to, GAO added, saying that another planning document will be necessary.
“The roadmap is to outline metrics and timelines against which DOE will measure its fusion energy initiatives related to science and technology,” said GAO. “However, a DOE official told us that the roadmap would not address risks related to deploying fusion energy. The official told us that addressing risks would require a separate effort which DOE has not yet initiated.”
By providing realistic and specific goals, including metrics and timelines, for how the department will facilitate commercialization, the Energy Department can improve upon its progress, GAO said. The department agreed with GAO’s recommendation and maintained its expected completion of its fusion energy science and technology roadmap by mid-2025 and said it would take other related actions.
