Fusion companies expect commercial plants to be online in the mid-2030s, and with this target unchanged in half a decade, confidence is holding firm.
The pace of progress across the past five years was not foreseen at the turn of the decade, and with technologies rapidly advancing, focus is now turning to establishment of the policy, planning, market, and regulatory frameworks within which projects can proceed. Swift action is needed to ensure the wider ecosystem does not impede the delivery of this, most transformational, technology.
Effective and investible commercial fusion projects will depend on the existence of attractive commercial frameworks, risk-proportionate regulation, viable planning systems, rapid workforce development and scalability in the supply chain – all at a pace which matches development of plant designs.
These are challenges common to the industrial deployment of energy at scale – and areas in which the wider sector has lessons for fusion, from both its successes and challenges. Fission is a natural place to look: the fusion community has long sought appropriate understanding of how the two differ, but this desire for differentiation exists alongside the recognition of significant overlaps in supply chain, workforce, and infrastructure.
While the global fusion market is moving at pace, with the US leading the way in private startups and the German government demonstrating remarkable industrial integration, the wider ecosystem is something in which the UK remains a world leader, so it is in the UK that we can start, when looking for lessons from fission.
Regulation
Outside of the technical, regulation is perhaps the area of greatest progress to date – and an area where fission lessons apply most directly to fusion. Led by the UK, there is an emerging global consensus that a blanket application of fission regimes to fusion would be disproportionate, moreover, that the bodies and structures which apply fission regulation should not necessarily do so for fusion.
In fission, the necessity for strong regulation, and the professionalism of those who ensure (in industry) and assure (in regulators) these stringent rules, is beyond question. The UK’s Fingleton report, however, recently identified many areas where regulatory reform could streamline and enable the sector without compromising effectiveness. With no chain reaction scenario, no long-lived radioactive waste, and fundamentally lower risks and challenges, fusion must ensure from the outset that the arrangements established assure safety, while still maximising deployability.
Planning
Planning is another area where fusion can immediately import lessons – fast-tracking towards a success that was delayed for too long for other technologies. The Planning Act 2008 was perhaps the most significant legislative step in efforts to enable a new generation of energy infrastructure to be delivered in the UK, notably reducing risk and uncertainty around build projects. For fusion, publication in June 2026 of EN8 – a draft national policy statement for fusion power plants – is an example of how early establishment of the right ecosystem is enabling the development of fusion projects – and making the UK an attractive place for fusion business.
While there remain critics of the Development Consent Order process, we need only look to consenting challenges of decades past – the Sizewell B planning enquiry chief amongst them. The enquiry sat for 340 days over two years, of which very few addressed truly local matters. Establishing a strategic needs case in national statute provides certainty and investability for developers – as the growth of offshore wind under NPS has shown, while allowing local planning processes to focus on important and impactful local considerations.
Market Environment
If regulation and consenting are seen as enablers for build, the market environment and associated financial return are the very case for any project. An investible, viable, and (in a competitive global market) attractive market framework is essential to ignite early fusion projects – which will create supply chain hubs, workforce development, and embed the most enduring economic value.
The 2008 white paper which invited private development of fission plants did not address the need for a bankable investment environment. As projects progressed, we saw the 2010 launch of electricity market reform to enable all clean energy investment. Feed-in tariffs drove early solar deployment and cost reduction until projects could stand on their own, while Contracts for Difference found their first great success in offshore wind, where successive auction rounds cut costs and built a substantial UK supply chain – proof of what the right market framework, established early, can deliver for an emerging energy technology. For fission, the search continued – through the Regulated Asset Base and ultimately to the measures proposed under the 2026 Advanced Nuclear Framework. While the landscape now appears viable, 15 years of market creativity has been a challenging road.
In March 2026, the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero explicitly stated it would establish the market framework for fusion power sales in the UK – recognising that taking this challenge head on would yield greatest market stability. The Fusion Industry Association (FIA) will soon launch a private-public dialogue, a process which will bring together key stakeholders to define the parameters of private investability and public viability, and propose within the venn area a market which can deliver at pace and scale. The recommendations of this process will aim to aid and inform Government proposals.
Fusion Communities
Finally, at the heart of these proposals are communities. The world now has several ‘fusion communities’. Aside from the long-standing research communities around places like Culham, and the hosts of leading private fusion companies with their extensive labs and demonstrators, we now have world-leading projects sited in: Virginia (ARC, Commonwealth Fusion Systems); Tennessee (Type One); Washington (Helion), Bavaria (Proxima), Hessen (Focused) and Nottinghamshire (STEP, UK Government).
One area where the fission record is unquestionable, is its ability and commitment to maintaining outstanding relationships with host communities. The relationship between fission plants and their hosts is second to none: in this area, fusion must look to fission for lessons in success.
The UK Fusion Forum in September – and a UK-led Global Policy Summit on 14 September – will consider these themes, alongside wider discussions of the sector, and take heed of fission experience.
– The is taking place in London on 14/15 September
