Tennessee issued Type One Energy a fusion-specific byproduct material licence on August 31 — the first licence anywhere for a commercial fusion machine. It exists because the NRC delegated fusion regulation to the states, and Tennessee's radiological-health division wrote the first framework. The licence permits construction of Project Infinity at TVA's Bull Run; full startup is targeted for 2034.
Tennessee / Type One Energy — Bull Run, Clinton, TN — Tennessee issued the first licence anywhere for a commercial fusion machine on 31 Aug 2026, presented by Governor Bill Lee at the Organization of Agreement States meeting in Nashville. It covers Project Infinity, Type One Energy's 400 MW stellarator plant at TVA's Bull Run Energy Complex in Clinton, and follows the state's first-in-the-nation fusion regulatory framework — built after the NRC delegated fusion regulation to the states. Type One plans to break ground on phase one this year and expects full startup by 2034. A licence is permission to build, not a machine that works: no stellarator has yet produced net energy, and the plant is a decade out.
ORNL licensed a suite of cryogenic pellet fuelling technologies — four lab inventions — to stellarator developer Type One Energy, signed at the Nuclear Opportunities Workshop in Knoxville. The technique freezes hydrogen into solid pellets near absolute zero and fires them into the plasma at high speed.
