(From Lab to Grid Weekly: November 16-22, 2025)
This week brought dramatic developments across technical achievement, federal policy restructuring, and strategic European investment that collectively reshape the fusion landscape. From Zap Energy’s record-breaking plasma pressures to the Trump administration’s elevation of fusion within DOE’s hierarchy and Europe’s targeted equity investments in laser fusion, the week demonstrated fusion’s rapidly evolving position in both technical capabilities and political priorities.
Zap Energy Achieves Record 1.6 Gigapascal Plasma Pressures
FuZE-3 Marks Major Milestone for Z-Pinch Approach
On November 18, Seattle-based Zap Energy announced a landmark achievement with its Fusion Z-pinch Experiment 3 (FuZE-3) device, achieving plasma pressures of 1.6 gigapascals—the highest-pressure performance ever recorded in a sheared-flow-stabilized Z pinch. [Zap Energy] [ScienceDaily] [TechCrunch]
The results, presented at the American Physical Society’s Division of Plasma Physics meeting in Long Beach, California, represent a critical marker on the path toward scientific energy gain (Q>1) and validate Zap’s distinctive approach to fusion that eschews the massive magnetic coils required by tokamaks or the enormous laser arrays needed for inertial confinement.
Understanding the Achievement
Zap’s highest single-shot electron pressure measurement reached 830 megapascals (MPa). However, plasmas contain both electrons and much heavier ions. When electron and ion temperatures equilibrate—as they are expected to in Zap’s system—total plasma pressure (electrons plus ions) approximately doubles the electron measurement, yielding 1.6 gigapascals.
To contextualize this extreme condition: one gigapascal equals approximately 10,000 times atmospheric pressure at sea level, or 10 times the pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. These pressures were sustained for approximately one microsecond (one millionth of a second) and measured using optical Thomson scattering—the gold-standard technique for plasma diagnostics.
The recent FuZE-3 campaigns achieved multiple repeated shots with electron densities ranging from 3-5 × 10²⁴ m⁻³ and electron temperatures exceeding 1 keV (equivalent to 21 million degrees Fahrenheit or 11.7 million degrees Celsius). Colin Adams, Head of Experimental Physics at Zap Energy, emphasized: “There are some big changes in FuZE-3 compared to Zap’s previous systems and it’s great to see it perform this well so quickly out of the gate.”
Revolutionary Three-Electrode Design
What distinguishes FuZE-3 from Zap’s previous devices is its innovative three-electrode configuration, making it the company’s first system to independently control plasma acceleration and compression. Previous two-electrode Z-pinch systems required the same electrical pulse to both accelerate plasma (creating the stabilizing sheared flow) and compress it into a Z pinch—a fundamental constraint that limited optimization.
“The capability to independently control plasma acceleration and compression gives us a new dial to tune the physics and increase the plasma density,” Adams explained. “The two-electrode systems have been effective at heating, but lacked the compression targeted in our theoretical models.”
This separation of functions, enabled by two independent capacitor banks feeding three electrodes, allows researchers to optimize each process independently—accelerating plasma to generate stabilizing flow while separately controlling compression to maximize density and temperature. The result is significantly improved performance in achieving the fusion triple product: the combination of density, temperature, and confinement time that determines fusion reactor viability.
Compact Advantages and Scalability
The FuZE-3 device’s plasma chamber measures only about 12 feet long and produces hot dense plasma filaments just a few millimeters wide—a stark contrast to the massive scales of conventional fusion approaches. This compactness derives from Zap’s sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch approach, which generates magnetic fields through the plasma current itself rather than requiring external coils weighing hundreds of tonnes.
Importantly, Zap’s physics represents quasi-steady-state magnetic confinement, not the inertial fusion physics of systems that compress targets in nanoseconds using massive laser arrays. For Zap’s approach, controlling plasma acceleration to generate and sustain stabilizing flow is as critical as achieving compression—a fundamentally different optimization challenge than either tokamaks or laser fusion facilities face.
Forward Momentum
Ben Levitt, Zap Energy’s VP of R&D, emphasized the early-stage nature of these results: “We’re really just getting started with FuZE-3. It was built and commissioned just recently, we’re generating lots of high-quality shots with high repeatability, and we have plenty of headroom to continue making rapid progress in fusion performance.”
While FuZE-3 testing continues, Zap plans to commission another next-generation FuZE device scheduled to come online this winter. Simultaneously, power plant engineering progresses in parallel, anchored by the Century demonstration platform. With 150 team members across Seattle and San Diego facilities, Zap Energy continues pursuing its vision of low-cost, compact, scalable fusion that requires orders of magnitude less capital than conventional approaches.
Trump Administration Elevates Fusion in DOE Reorganization
New Office of Fusion Created as Renewables Offices Eliminated
On November 20-21, the Trump administration announced a sweeping reorganization of the Department of Energy, creating a standalone Office of Fusion while eliminating multiple offices focused on renewable energy and energy efficiency. [TechCrunch] [Bloomberg] [AIP]
The reorganization represents a dramatic shift in federal energy priorities and elevates fusion from a research program within the Office of Science to a standalone entity focused explicitly on commercialization rather than basic research.
Offices Eliminated
The reorganization eliminated or merged several major DOE offices:
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) – A key clean tech deployment and R&D program that funded research for LED lighting, plug-in electric vehicles, solar, wind, batteries, building efficiency, and advanced manufacturing. EERE received billions in annual appropriations and helped drive dramatic cost reductions in renewable technologies.
Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) – Established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to award billions for first-of-a-kind technologies including carbon capture, hydrogen hubs, and industrial decarbonization pilots. The Trump administration previously recommended reducing OCED’s staff from approximately 250 to 35 while canceling billions in awards.
Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains – Focused on localizing supply chains for weatherization, community energy programs, and clean technology manufacturing.
Office of State and Community Energy Programs – Managed formula funds for weatherization and state-level energy initiatives.
Grid Deployment Office – Addressed transmission planning and financing at a time when interconnection queues contain thousands of gigawatts of prospective generation seeking grid connection.
Office of Federal Energy Management Programs – Managed energy efficiency initiatives across federal facilities.
Offices Created or Restructured
Office of Fusion – A new standalone office reporting to the Under Secretary for Science, focused on commercialization pathways for fusion energy. Previously, fusion research resided within the Office of Science under basic research programs.
Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office – Merges the former Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management with geothermal programs, reflecting the administration’s “all of the above” approach to baseload power.
Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation – Appears to absorb portions of EERE and MESC, reporting directly to Energy Secretary Chris Wright, reflecting critical minerals’ importance to administration priorities.
Office of Energy Dominance Financing – Renamed from the Loan Programs Office, signaling reorientation toward supporting nuclear and fossil fuel projects under the “energy dominance” mandate.
Strategic Rationale and Industry Response
The creation of a dedicated Office of Fusion signals intent to accelerate commercialization timelines by providing direct administrative pathways focused on deployment rather than research. Donald Kettl, professor emeritus at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, noted: “The creation of the Office of Fusion was likely spurred to encourage commercialization of the technology. Previously, fusion fell under the Office of Science, which is focused on research rather than commercialization.”
The Fusion Industry Association welcomed the move, stating: “This shift has been a long-standing FIA priority, and we’re encouraged to see DOE take this step to streamline and elevate fusion programming.”
However, the broader reorganization faces significant legal and practical challenges. Multiple eliminated offices were explicitly authorized and funded by Congress through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and other legislation. As Kettl explained: “The authority of Cabinet secretaries to move around major functions and offices is very limited, especially when those offices were established and funded through congressional action. Congress has put tight handcuffs on reorganizations, and plans typically require either congressional approval or the opportunity for congressional review.”
The reorganization also raises questions about billions in multiyear awards already committed to projects through eliminated offices. While agencies typically reallocate grants and contracts during reorganizations rather than canceling them, terms can be renegotiated if appropriations change or statutory authority is questioned.
Broader Implications
The DOE restructuring reflects the Trump administration’s priorities of “expanding American energy production, accelerating scientific and technological leadership, and ensuring the continued safety and readiness of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile.” The simultaneous elevation of fusion and elimination of renewable energy offices signals a strategic bet on longer-term nuclear innovation over near-term renewable deployment—a controversial choice given renewables’ current cost-competitiveness and immediate availability.
Energy markets responded with uncertainty: clean energy ETFs reportedly dropped 3-5% in after-hours trading following the announcement, while shares of nuclear and fusion-adjacent companies saw modest gains. The full implications will depend on congressional response, legal challenges, and how DOE implements the reorganization in practice—particularly regarding existing commitments and ongoing programs.
Europe Makes Strategic Fusion Investment
EU EIC STEP Scale Up Selects Two German Laser Fusion Companies
On November 19, the European Innovation Council (EIC) announced the first equity investments under its new STEP Scale Up programme, selecting eight deep-tech innovators from 36 proposals for strategic support. [EIC Announcement]
Notably, two of the eight selected companies are developing fusion energy technologies: Marvel Fusion (Germany) for laser-driven inertial fusion, and Focused Energy (Germany) for advanced laser fusion systems. Each company is eligible for €10-30 million in equity investment.
STEP Scale Up Programme Structure
The EIC STEP (Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform) Scale Up programme represents a significant evolution in European industrial policy, providing equity investments rather than traditional grant funding to support high-growth companies advancing technologies deemed strategically important for Europe’s sovereignty and resilience.
Key programme features:
€300 million budget for 2025, expanding to €900 million by 2027, demonstrating sustained commitment to strategic technology sectors.
Equity investments ranging from €10-30 million per company, providing patient capital for technology scale-up without immediate commercialization pressure.
Strategic technology focus on clean energy, quantum computing, semiconductors, space technologies, and health—sectors identified as critical for European competitiveness and security.
“STEP Seal” recognition for 21 additional companies that, while not receiving direct equity investment, gain enhanced credibility and support in attracting alternative funding from private investors and venture capital.
Selected Fusion Companies
Marvel Fusion (Germany) – Developing a laser-driven inertial fusion approach using nanosecond laser pulses to ignite nanostructured fuel targets. Marvel Fusion has previously raised €385 million in total funding and is pursuing a pathway to commercial fusion distinct from both magnetic confinement and traditional laser inertial approaches. The company recently benefited from Germany’s €2+ billion fusion commitment announced earlier this year.
Focused Energy (Germany) – Advancing proton-boron fusion using advanced laser systems capable of achieving the extreme conditions necessary for aneutronic fusion reactions. This approach, if successful, would produce fusion energy without generating neutrons—potentially simplifying reactor design, reducing activation of structural materials, and enabling more compact systems. Focused Energy has raised approximately $200 million and collaborates with major research institutions on laser fusion science.
Strategic Context
The selection of two laser fusion companies—both German—reflects several strategic considerations:
Technology Diversification: While much global attention focuses on magnetic confinement fusion (tokamaks, stellarators) and U.S.-led inertial confinement efforts, Europe is positioning itself across multiple technological pathways, ensuring it maintains competitive positions regardless of which approach reaches commercialization first.
Industrial Policy Alignment: The investment aligns with Germany’s broader fusion strategy, which includes €2 billion in research funding by 2029 and explicit goals to build the world’s first commercial fusion power plant by 2040. By providing equity investment rather than research grants, the EIC enables companies to focus on scaling and commercialization rather than pure R&D.
Sovereignty and Resilience: The STEP programme explicitly frames these investments as essential for European sovereignty—ensuring Europe develops domestic capabilities in critical technologies rather than depending on imports from geopolitical competitors. Fusion energy, given its potential to provide abundant baseload power independent of imported fossil fuels, represents a core sovereignty technology.
Laser Fusion Complementarity: While tokamak approaches pursue sustained plasma confinement, laser fusion offers potential advantages in compactness, pulsed power generation matching grid needs, and reduced radioactive activation. By backing laser fusion specifically, Europe hedges against scenarios where magnetic confinement faces unexpected technical or economic challenges.
The EIC’s approach contrasts with U.S. fusion policy, which emphasizes milestone-based government funding (ARPA-E, INFUSE, FIRE) combined with substantial private venture capital. Europe’s model provides direct equity investment, making the European Commission a stakeholder in company success while potentially influencing strategic decisions and technology access.
UK’s Tokamak Energy Demonstrates Complete HTS Magnet System
Demo4 Achieves 11.8 Tesla in World-First Full System Test
On November 19, Tokamak Energy announced breakthrough results from Demo4, its complete high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnet system, achieving magnetic field strengths of 11.8 Tesla at -243 degrees Celsius (-405.4 degrees Fahrenheit) in recent tests. [Tokamak Energy] [Interesting Engineering] [World Nuclear News]
The achievement represents the first time fusion power plant-relevant magnetic fields have been demonstrated in a complete HTS magnet system configured in tokamak geometry, marking a critical transition from individual magnet demonstrations to full system validation.
Why Complete System Testing Matters
While several organizations have demonstrated high-field individual HTS magnets, Tokamak Energy’s Demo4 addresses the next essential engineering challenge: validating how magnets perform within the complex, combined magnetic environment of a complete system.
In a fusion power plant, each superconducting tape must operate within magnetic fields generated not just by itself but by all neighboring coils—conditions that significantly influence effective critical current, structural stresses, and thermal management. These system-level interactions cannot be captured through testing individual magnets in isolation.
Demo4 consists of 14 toroidal field magnets and two poloidal field magnets arranged in the cage-like structure that will surround plasma in future spherical tokamak fusion plants. During recent tests, the system sustained seven million ampere-turns of electrical current through its central column—demonstrating not only high magnetic fields but also the massive current-carrying capacity essential for compact fusion reactors.
Technical Specifications and Capabilities
Magnetic Field Strength: 11.8 Tesla achieved to date, with testing continuing toward higher fields expected to reach 18 Tesla—nearly one million times stronger than Earth’s magnetic field.
Operating Temperature: -243°C (-405.4°F), substantially warmer than the -269°C required by traditional low-temperature superconductors, dramatically reducing cooling costs and complexity.
Current Capacity: Seven million ampere-turns through the central column, approximately 200 times the current density achievable with copper conductors.
System Configuration: Complete tokamak magnetic geometry including 14 toroidal field coils and 2 poloidal field coils, enabling realistic system-level force and thermal analysis.
Material Technology: High-temperature superconducting tapes using rare earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) coating, wound with precision into multi-layered metal conductors.
Engineering Insights and Commercial Implications
Warrick Matthews, Tokamak Energy CEO, emphasized the commercial significance: “These results are a major victory for the race to deliver fusion and HTS as a disruptive new commercial technology. Demo4 represents over a decade of HTS innovation at Tokamak Energy. Born from our fusion mission, it validates one of the technical solutions for getting clean, limitless, safe and secure fusion energy on the grid.”
Graham Dunbar, Demo4 chief engineer, highlighted the data value: “Demo4 is delivering exactly what it was built for. Every test provides us with invaluable data and deepens our understanding. This isn’t just about achieving a number; it’s about gaining the confidence and build expertise to scale our technology for future energy-producing fusion systems.”
Beyond fusion applications, Demo4 demonstrates HTS technology’s transformative potential across multiple sectors:
Data Center Power Distribution: HTS cables can deliver 200x the current density of copper, enabling more compact, efficient power distribution for AI-driven hyperscale data centers.
Electric Aviation: HTS-enabled electric motors could provide the power density necessary for zero-emission flight by dramatically reducing motor weight while maintaining high power output.
Magnetic Levitation Transport: Ultra-high current density enables compact, powerful electromagnets for maglev transportation systems.
Scientific Instrumentation: Particle accelerators, fusion diagnostics, and advanced research equipment requiring strong, stable magnetic fields.
Path Forward
Tokamak Energy continues testing Demo4 through the coming months, with next results targeting higher magnetic field strengths expected in early 2026. The data and engineering insights gained inform designs for the company’s advanced prototype ST80-HTS and subsequent commercial fusion power plant ST-E1.
Simultaneously, Tokamak Energy is scaling its commercial HTS magnet business through TE Magnetics, positioning to become a major supplier of high-temperature superconducting magnets and technology across multiple industrial sectors—creating revenue streams that help fund fusion development while building the supply chains necessary for commercial deployment.
Convergence: Technical Achievement, Policy Shift, and Strategic Investment
This week’s developments reveal fusion’s increasingly complex position at the intersection of technical progress, political priorities, and strategic industrial policy:
Technical Validation: Both Zap Energy’s record plasma pressures and Tokamak Energy’s complete HTS system demonstration represent critical technical milestones that validate fundamentally different fusion approaches. Zap’s achievement shows Z-pinch physics can reach fusion-relevant pressures in compact systems without massive infrastructure, while Tokamak’s Demo4 proves HTS magnets can generate the extreme fields necessary for compact spherical tokamaks. These parallel advances across multiple technological pathways increase the probability that at least one approach will succeed commercially.
Policy Realignment: The Trump administration’s DOE reorganization reflects a strategic bet on fusion as a long-term clean energy solution while deprioritizing near-term renewable deployment. By creating a standalone Office of Fusion focused on commercialization rather than research, the administration signals confidence in fusion’s timeline and willingness to restructure federal bureaucracy to accelerate deployment. However, the simultaneous elimination of renewable energy offices raises questions about strategic coherence and risks legal challenges given congressional authorization of eliminated programs.
European Strategic Positioning: The EU’s EIC STEP investments in Marvel Fusion and Focused Energy demonstrate Europe’s systematic approach to maintaining competitive positions across multiple fusion pathways. By providing equity investment rather than research grants, Europe positions itself as a stakeholder in commercial success while ensuring domestic capabilities in strategic technologies. The focus on laser fusion—complementary to dominant magnetic confinement approaches—represents technology hedging and could provide advantages if laser approaches reach commercialization faster than expected.
Global Competition Intensifying: The convergence of U.S. policy shifts, European strategic investments, and technical achievements from both American and British companies reflects intensifying global competition for fusion leadership. With China reportedly investing $6.5 billion since 2023, Japan committing billions under PM Takaichi’s fusion-forward agenda, and Germany targeting the world’s first commercial plant by 2040, fusion has transitioned from collaborative international research to competitive national industrial policy.
The mid-2030s timeline for commercial fusion deployment appears increasingly credible as technical capabilities advance, policy frameworks evolve, and capital flows accelerate. However, success will require sustained coordination across technical development, policy support, investment, workforce development, and supply chain maturation—challenges that extend beyond any single breakthrough or policy decision.
Major Sources:
- Zap Energy
- DOE Reorganization – AIP
- TechCrunch – DOE Restructuring
- EIC STEP Scale Up
- Tokamak Energy Demo4
