Galvanizing Advances in Market-Aligned Fusion for an Overabundance of Watts

Generation

Status:
Active
Release Date:
Project Count:
14

Program Description:

The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) and Office of Science–Fusion Energy Sciences (SC-FES) are overseeing a joint program, Galvanizing Advances in Market-aligned fusion for an Overabundance of Watts (GAMOW). ARPA-E will contribute up to $15 million in funding over a three-year program period, and FES will contribute up to $5 million per year for three years for qualifying technologies. GAMOW will prioritize R&D in (1) technologies and subsystems between the fusion plasma and balance of plant, (2) cost-effective, high-efficiency, high-duty-cycle driver technologies, and (3) cross-cutting areas such as novel fusion materials and advanced and additive manufacturing for fusion-relevant materials and components. Applicants should leverage and build on foundational SC-FES research programs in fusion materials, fusion nuclear science, plasma-materials interactions, and other enabling technologies, while ensuring that market-aware techno-economic analyses inform project goals.

Awardees must work toward one or more of the following high-level program objectives:

Demonstrate substantial progress toward technical feasibility and/or increases in performance compared to the current state of the art in the priority R&D areas.

Enable significant device simplification or elimination of entire subsystems of commercially motivated fusion energy systems.

Reduce fusion energy system costs, including those of critical materials and component testing.

Improve the reliability, safety, and/or environmental attractiveness of fusion energy systems.

Innovation Need:

For more than 60 years, fusion research and development has focused on attaining the required fuel density, temperature, and energy confinement time required for a viable fusion energy system. To date, relatively modest investments have been made in the enabling technologies and advanced materials needed to sustain a commercially attractive fusion energy system. However, further innovations and advances are required to establish fusion energy’s technical and commercial viability. The GAMOW program supports projects pursuing innovative R&D in fusion-energy subsystems and cross-cutting areas to enable commercially attractive fusion energy within the next several decades.

Potential Impact:

Successful development of fusion energy science and technology could lead to a safe, carbon-free, abundant energy source for developed and emerging economies.

Security:

The GAMOW program will further advance American leadership in fusion energy science and technology.

Environment:

Carbon-free energy generated by fusion would have far-reaching potential benefits to humanity.

Economy:

Progress in the areas emphasized in GAMOW will help further establish fusion energy’s technical and commercial viability within the next several decades.

Contact

Program Director:
Dr. Ahmed Diallo; Dr. Robert Ledoux
Press and General Inquiries Email:
ARPA-E-Comms@hq.doe.gov

Project Listing

• Bridge 12 Technologies - High Efficiency, Megawatt-Class Gyrotrons for Instability Control of Burning-Plasma Machines
• Colorado School of Mines - Interfacial-Engineered Membranes for Efficient Tritium Extraction
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) - Advance Castable Nanostructured Alloys for First-Wall/Blanket Applications
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) - Plasma-Facing Component Innovations by Advanced Manufacturing and Design
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) - Fusion Energy Reactor Models Integrator (FERMI)
• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) - Microstructure Optimization and Novel Processing Development of ODS Steels for Fusion Environments
• Phoenix - Application of Plasma-Window Technology to Enable an Ultra-High-Flux DT Neutron Source
• Princeton Fusion Systems - Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Amplifiers for Plasma Heating and Control
• Savannah River National Laboratory - EM-Enhanced HyPOR Loop for Fast Fusion Fuel Cycles
• Savannah River National Laboratory - Process Intensification Scale-Up of Direct LiT Electrolysis
• Stony Brook University - ENHANCED Shield: A Critical Materials Technology Enabling Compact Superconducting Tokamaks
• University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) - AMPERE - Advanced Materials for Plasma-Exposed Robust Electrodes
• University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego) - Renewable low-Z wall for fusion reactors with built-in tritium recovery
• University of Houston - Advanced HTS Conductors Customized for Fusion