Axios · White House · China · Donald Trump · Axios
Record funding for fusion power lands as Trump eyes cuts
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A key government agency will announce on Wednesday a record amount of funding for fusion energy, tapping the power of the stars, even as President Trump seeks to cut other parts of the federal fusion budget.
Key facts
- Yes, but: The ARPA-E announcement comes as President Trump's 2027 budget proposal seeks to cut the Energy Department's fusion energy sciences initiatives from $805 million to $755 million, according
- The Energy Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency (known as ARPA-E) will commit $135 million over the next 18 months to accelerate the development of fusion energy technologies, according
- I went to work on it 40 years ago, and we thought it was 10 or 20 years away then," Wright said, So, he says, he "could be wrong
- I think we'll have, hopefully, a commercial pathway identified in the next five years," Wright said on the Katie Miller podcast, which is hosted by the wife of Stephen Miller, a top White House
Summary
The split-screen approach underscores tensions in the administration's energy strategy, and highlights how federal support is falling short of what the fusion industry says it needs. The Energy Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency (known as ARPA-E) will commit $135 million over the next 18 months to accelerate the development of fusion energy technologies, according to details shared with Axios. The funding, the largest single fusion investment in the agency's history, will focus on tackling technical barriers that have kept fusion from reaching commercial scale. Fusion is still early in its development, and federal government support will likely be essential for it to ever commercialize.