Kyoto Fusioneering starts work on key fusion power plant device

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Kyoto Fusioneering starts work on key fusion power plant device

Tim De Chant

8:00 AM PDT · August 11, 2026

In the fusion power world, most of the attention gets lavished on the reactors themselves, where atoms fuse to unleash enormous amounts of energy. But a fusion reactor can’t run for long without a lot of other equipment, and building a fusion reactor is expensive enough on its own. Plenty of startups are happy to let someone else handle the rest .

Among the dozens of companies in the emerging fusion-power supply chain, few specialists are bigger than Kyoto Fusioneering . The Japan-based company has raised $121 million in committed capital, according to FusionX. Now it has landed grants from the U.S. Department of Energy and the state of Tennessee to build a prototype fuel breeding device at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

Alongside the announcement, Kyoto Fusioneering exclusively told TechCrunch that it’s moving its U.S. headquarters to Oak Ridge.

The startup has emerged as a key player in the fusion power industry. Over half of fusion startups have said they plan to work with external suppliers like Kyoto Fusioneering on fuel cycle technologies, according to a recent Fusion Industry Association survey .

Kyoto Fusioneering’s forthcoming device, called Unity-3, is being developed with ORNL and will test a fuel cycle technology known as a breeding blanket. Breeding blankets harvest energy from the fusion reactor while also generating fresh fusion fuel.

One breeding blanket design will use liquid lithium, which will absorb both heat and neutrons. As the lithium atoms in the blanket are bombarded with neutrons, they split into helium and tritium, an isotope of hydrogen that’s an important fuel for many reactor designs. The tritium is then separated from the blanket and sent to the reactor, while heat is extracted to generate power.

All of this requires heat-resistant materials, bespoke pumps, and other specialized equipment, and it’s just one slice of a fusion power plant that needs to be developed before it can connect to the grid. Kyoto Fusioneering is also developing systems to heat fusion fuel into a plasma, recycle unburned fuel from the exhaust, and harvest heat to generate electricity.

Unity-3 will test the performance of not just liquid lithium, but a range of other breeding blanket materials, Kyoto Fusioneering told TechCrunch. The device will help researchers and startups validate the data they’ve been generating, so far mostly through computer models.

Other fusion startups, including Realta Fusion , Thea Energy , Type One Energy , and Xcimer Energy , will use data from the Unity-3 experiments to design their reactors. It’s a range of startups — and approaches to fusion power — that should help position Kyoto Fusioneering as a go-to supplier when fusion power is ready for the grid.

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Tim De Chant

Senior Reporter, Climate

Tim De Chant is a senior climate reporter at TechCrunch. He has written for a wide range of publications, including Wired magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Ars Technica, The Wire China, and NOVA Next, where he was founding editor.

De Chant is also a lecturer in MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing, and he was awarded a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT in 2018, during which time he studied climate technologies and explored new business models for journalism. He received his PhD in environmental science, policy, and management from the University of California, Berkeley, and his BA degree in environmental studies, English, and biology from St. Olaf College.

You can contact or verify outreach from Tim by emailing tim.dechant@techcrunch.com .

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