Kyoto Fusioneering, a Japan-based fusion supply chain specialist, has secured grants from the US Department of Energy and the state of Tennessee to build a prototype fuel-breeding device at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and is relocating its US headquarters to Oak Ridge. The move underscores the growing importance of specialist suppliers in the fusion industry, as most reactor developers rely on external firms for the complex auxiliary systems needed to make fusion power commercially viable rather than building everything themselves.

The new device, called Unity-3, will test breeding blanket technology, which harvests heat from a fusion reactor while generating fresh fuel; one design uses liquid lithium that absorbs neutrons to produce tritium fuel and heat for electricity generation. Kyoto Fusioneering, which has raised $121 million in committed capital, is also developing plasma-heating, fuel-recycling and heat-harvesting systems, and a Fusion Industry Association survey found more than half of fusion startups plan to rely on external suppliers for such fuel cycle technologies. Data from the Unity-3 experiments will be used by other fusion companies, including Realta Fusion, Thea Energy, Type One Energy and Xcimer Energy, to inform their own reactor designs.