The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will host a summit Thursday on commercial fusion energy. Various fusion energy experts will convene to showcase progress public and private sectors have made to deploy fusion energy to the market.
Notable speakers at the summit include U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, Fusion Industry Association CEO Andrew Holland and Anne White, head of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT.
Fusion energy – created by combining atoms to create heavier ones – is recognized as a potential clean and abundant alternative energy source, if effectively harnessed.
The summit will be an opportunity to create thousands of high paying jobs in the emerging fusion energy industry across America, according to Kronos Fusion Energy.
Kronos Founder Priyanca Ford said in a statement the biggest job growth will come from U.S. small businesses in electronics and other technical fields.
"The fusion energy industry is now hiring hundreds of scientists, mathematicians, computer systems experts, energy industry experts and top experts in technology fields to design and simulate the next-generation fusion energy generators,” she said.
Kronos plans to license its fusion energy power plants to certified U.S. manufacturers capable of producing the sophisticated components of the reactors.
Over 30 fusion energy companies operate worldwide, two-thirds of them are based in the U.S. The private sector invested over $2.5 billion in fusion technology development in 2021.
The DOE intends to launch an agency-wide initiative, partnering with the private sector to develop a viable strategy for commercial fusion production.
"Each revolution in energy in the past has resulted in the creation of countless jobs in the U.S.,” said Ethan Bond, partner and chief legislative strategist at Kronos. “The fusion energy industry will go down the same path for job creation, except at an expedited speed due to the state of the technology being ready now, as global energy shortages can be tailwinds that will accelerate industry growth."
The fusion energy summit is part of the Biden administration’s ongoing efforts to promote renewable energy infrastructure. Last year, the administration announced an ambitious goal to generate 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030.
The summit runs from 10 a.m. ET to 1 p.m. ET on Thursday with a full agenda and background online. A short video on DOE progress on fusion will be part of the program. A fact sheet depicts DOE's intent to launch an agency-wide initiative with a new DOE lead fusion coordinator reporting to the undersecretary for science and innovation.
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