As of October 16, 2025, the Department of Energy (DOE) released a nuclear fusion road map that reviews barriers to deployment and provides strategies to address them. [1] The road map suggests that the goal is to achieve private-sector fusion scaleup in the 2030s. The DOE stated that the road map will start the transition to a future Office of Fusion Energy and Innovation once its goals are met, after which the office will carve a path to fusion commercialization. The barriers to deploying fusion originate from Structural Materials, Plasma-Facing Components, Advancing Confinement Approaches, Fuel Cycle and Tritium Processing, Blankets and Fusion Plant Engineering, and System Integration. DOE envisions that in the next two to three years, the public sector will build small-to-medium test stands, start design of large-scale facilities, and pursue research and development regarding neutron sources. The road map plans for the private sector to start nuclear operation of early generation power plants five to 10 years from now.

[1] https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2025-10/fusion-s%26t-roadmap-101625.pdf