Finland’s VTT Technical Research has been selected as the first foreign partner to join the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy) programme focusing on enabling commercialisation of fusion energy. VTT has also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California for science and technology cooperation.
The collaboration with ARPA-E aims to solve the challenges of materials needed in extreme conditions, which are a bottleneck in the commercialisation of fusion energy. “Fusion energy is considered the ‘holy grail’ of clean energy, but issues with material durability have slowed breakthroughs for decades,” said Anssi Laukkanen, Research Professor at VTT. This is the first time DOE has brought in a foreign partner to this project.
“The traditional process of developing new materials can take decades. VTT’s simulation and AI technologies shorten the development cycles to months, allowing us to quickly discover, optimise and create case-specific materials tailored to a specific need,” Laukkanen explained. VTT’s expertise in computational materials engineering and AI-based simulation methods enable the testing of the materials durability in extreme conditions by simulating hundreds of millions of computational experiments.
The project focuses on developing materials for the first wall of fusion reactors, which must withstand extreme temperatures and radiation. The lack of materials that meet these requirements has been a significant barrier to the commercial development of fusion reactors.
“Fusion energy has long been a vision that has always been said to be 50 years away. Now research is advancing to the point where the first commercial players expect applications in just 5-10 years from now,” Laukkanen said.
The collaboration between VTT and LLNL aims to develop revolutionary solutions for both the energy market and sustainable development. It covers five key research areas: biotechnology, critical materials and green technologies, quantum computing, energy materials and structural alloys and materials for fusion energy.
“The new agreement allows us to deepen our long-standing collaboration and advance research more systematically. Collaboration with a top-tier research institution like LLNL offers a unique opportunity to tackle the critical problems of our time,” noted VTT CEO Antti Vasara.
“For us, this is not just about research, but also about bringing Finnish innovations to international markets. Now, we have an opportunity to be involved in developing new technologies with enormous market potential. The success of even one area could have significant impacts on economic growth,” said Tua Huomo, Executive Vice President of VTT’s sustainable products and materials business area.
