MADISON, Wis. — The former Oscar Mayer plant in Madison could soon be the site of breakthroughs in clean energy development.
Nuclear fusion company Realta Fusion announced Wednesday that it would move its corporate headquarters and a new research-and-development facility it called the Realta Forge to the site on Madison’s north side. The move is expected to generate over 600 jobs.
Realta currently houses its corporate offices in a building on Madison’s far west side and operates the Wisconsin HTS Axisymmetric Mirror at the UW Physical Sciences Lab in Stoughton.
The project got a boost from Wisconsin Act 165, signed by Gov. Tony Evers last year, which gives tax exemptions to fusion energy projects in the state. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation approved grant funding for the project earlier this year and the Madison Common Council greenlit a $2.8 million TIF loan for Realta about a month ago.
“We spent the better part of the past two years scouring the countryside to find the most favorable business environment and the most attractive site to build our R&D facility, and we found it in our own backyard,” Realta CEO Kieran Furlong said. “The state of Wisconsin and the city of Madison have made it clear they understand the promise of fusion energy and share our vision for the future, and now they’ve thrown their lot in together to make that vision a reality.”
Realta plans to use the new facility to develop a prototype magnetic mirror fusion machine, which will lay the groundwork for larger-scale fusion machines that can generate clean energy.
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