Japan’s firm to build fusion fuel breeding blanket facility in US

The US Department of Energy (DOE) and Japanese company Kyoto Fusioneering (KF) have formed a strategic partnership to build UNITY-3, a pioneering facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) dedicated to testing fusion fuel breeding blankets. These blankets are essential for fusion reactors to become fuel-self-sufficient by breeding tritium from lithium using neutrons generated in the fusion process. UNITY-3 will simulate the extreme nuclear conditions inside a reactor core to validate next-generation tritium breeding systems, complementing KF’s existing UNITY-1 facility in Japan and UNITY-2 under construction in Canada. This collaboration aims to accelerate the transition from theoretical fusion research to commercial fusion pilot plants. The partnership leverages ORNL’s expertise in materials science, supercomputing, and neutronics alongside KF’s private-sector engineering capabilities to rapidly develop critical infrastructure and reduce risks for fusion energy commercialization. Beyond building the facility, the agreement includes co-developing a commercialization roadmap, personnel exchanges, and joint research on