Japan’s fusion research gets $79m boost

Japanese fusion start-up Kyoto Fusioneering has raised 10.5 billion yen (US$79 million) in a Series C funding round.

The new funding, which brings the company’s cumulative total funding to 12.2 billion yen (US$92 million), is intended to accelerate investment in research and development and recruit new top level talent as well as to expand its wider business.

The funding round was led by existing investor JIC Venture Growth Investments with others including KEPCO’s venture fund K4 Ventures, the hydro generation company J-Power and the Mitsubishi Corporation.

Takashi Nagao, CEO and co-founder of Kyoto Fusioneering, said the company is immensely grateful for the confidence placed in its business growth during the funding round.

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“The attainment of fusion energy is a formidable challenge that cannot be realised by our company alone. It requires sustained support and collaboration from a wide array of stakeholders, including companies, research institutions and investors. By cultivating new relationships across various industries through this fundraising endeavour, we aim to harness innovative perspectives and significantly expedite our progress toward the early realisation of fusion energy.”

Kyoto Fusioneering, a spin-out from Kyoto University, is developing the Tokamak fusion technology bringing Japanese technological know-how to bear on components such as novel silicon carbide composites for use as a functional high-temperature material, tritium fuel systems including specialised tritium compatible pumps and fusion power generation systems using liquid metals and molten salts among others.

The new funding is intended to advance R&D on these and other aspects of fusion plant technology and engineering.

Under the company’s business model these would then be provided to other fusion developers.

The funding will also be used to advance the subsidiary businesses in the US and UK, where the focus is on the practical application and industrialisation of fusion energy.

In the US for example, one interest is the extraction of heat from fusion reactors for use for power generation, while in the UK one of the focusses is the tritium fuel cycle.

In addition to the subsidiaries Kyoto Fusioneering also has agreements in place with the UK Atomic Energy Authority and most recently the Canadian Nuclear Laboratory (CNL).

The first project with the UKAEA is on silicon carbide composites for the breeder blanket while the CNL partnership is focussed on fuel cycle systems.

In Japan an ‘Expert Committee on Fusion Strategy’ was established in September 2022 to advise on expediting the industrialisation and practical application of fusion energy.