Fusion Energy Innovation Alliance Launched to Accelerate Domestic Fusion Commercialization – Private Autonomous Organization Comprising 206 Experts from 91 Institutions (Korea)

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The alliance is a private autonomous organization comprising 206 experts from 91 institutions, including companies, universities, and government-funded research institutes. Vice President So Byeong-sik of Samsung C&T serves as the standing chairman. The alliance’s mission includes proposing policy directions for technology development, regulatory response, and human resource training. Additionally, it will support the nurturing of startups and facilitate overseas expansion.

Through the operation of the alliance, the Ministry of Science and ICT plans to create a focal point for communication among domestic industry, academia, and research and to seek to expand public-private cooperation. The ministry announced the “Strategy for Accelerating the Realization of Fusion Energy” in July and is currently pursuing follow-up measures.

Minister of Science and ICT Yoo Sang-Im said, “Fusion energy is a key technology to solve future energy shortage problems, and for its early realization, it is essential to establish a healthy industrial ecosystem through public-private cooperation and to commercialize the technologies developed so far,” adding, “I hope that the capabilities of industry, academia, and research, which have led the nation’s development, will be united to realize fusion energy.”

Fusion energy, which mimics the process occurring in the sun where hydrogen nuclei fuse to form helium, offers a potentially limitless and clean energy source. Unlike nuclear fission, fusion combines atoms, releasing vast amounts of energy without the long-lived radioactive waste. Research into fusion energy has been ongoing for decades, with significant international projects like the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France aiming to demonstrate its feasibility as a large-scale, carbon-free energy source.