UW-Madison at the center: The University of Wisconsin–Madison is the alliance’s founding university partner, and it was UW-Madison that announced the new alliance on May 15, following the inaugural Great Lakes Fusion Energy Summit organized at the university to coincide with Fusion Energy Week.
The May 6 summit included research displays; tours of labs and experiments; social events; and a chance to share information about the fusion industry timeline, technologies, supply chain opportunities, and workforce development.
The UW–Madison campus was where two member companies—Realta Fusion and Shine Technologies—got their start. A third fusion company, Type One Energy (formerly of Madison and now headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn.) was also spun out of the university.
Other members: In addition to Realta and Shine, the following are also organizing members of the Great Lakes Fusion Energy Alliance:
- Fusion Fuel Cycles, a joint venture between Kyoto Fusioneering and Canadian Nuclear Laboratories based in Ontario that is working on fusion fuel cycle technologies and plans to bring the world’s first commercially relevant tritium fuel cycle test facility on line in 2026.
- Paragon D&E, a Grand Rapids, Mich., manufacturer specializing in design and build capabilities for tooling.
- Strohwig Industries, a contract manufacturer providing engineering, machining, and assembly services located in Richfield, Wis.
- Tokamak Energy, a fusion company based in Oxford, England, that is developing fusion energy technology using a compact spherical tokamak design.
5 Lakes Institute: The Milwaukee, Wis.–based 5 Lakes Institute will coordinate the Great Lakes Fusion Energy Alliance.
The 5 Lakes Institute was founded in 2007 as a network to drive and amplify “diverse and inclusive tech-enabled GDP growth in the Midwest and Great Lakes region.” It counts among the region’s assets a robust electrical grid, a pipeline of skilled trades and engineering talent, decades of experience operating large-scale energy facilities, and supply chains, built to support the automotive, nuclear, and aerospace sectors.
“[This] powerful group of forward-leaning companies and university researchers will form an engineering core to drive the region’s fusion energy economy in coming years,” says John Byrnes, chair of the 5 Lakes Institute, which also issued a press release May 6.
CEOs speak: “The Great Lakes region led the development of the massive automobile manufacturing industry in the 20th century,” says Kieran Furlong, CEO of Realta Fusion. “We can use that deep manufacturing heritage to lead the massive manufacturing industry of the 21st century: fusion energy power plants.”
“This alliance is exactly the kind of cross-sector effort that helps bridge lab innovation to grid-scale reality,” said Ian Castillo, co-CEO of FFC. “Early collaboration like this will underpin the partnerships needed to build the durable supply chains and knowledge networks fusion will rely on as it moves toward deployment.”
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