The Fusion Index 2026
Explore the Fusion Index 2026. The index identifies the 100 most important players in nuclear fusion, recognising the leading research institutions, start-ups and companies that are bringing us closer to the goal of limitless energy. Read the full methodology here.
Fusion Index 2026: highlights
- National Ignition Facility: rank 1 in the Fusion Index
- Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics: highest-placed organisation, rank 3
- USA: 7 of the top 20 entries
- Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences: highest-placed entry from Asia, rank 7
| Rank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | National Ignition Facility | 85.6 | 89.5 | 93.4 | 92.1 | 60.2 | 73.5 |
| 2 | JET | 84.5 | 88.7 | 69.7 | 93.6 | 92.3 | 75.2 |
| 3 | MPI for Plasma Physics | 83.7 | 81.1 | 87.4 | 89.7 | 89.8 | 69.9 |
| 4 | LLNL | 83.6 | 83.5 | 92.3 | 90.7 | 65.2 | 72.4 |
| 5 | UK Atomic Energy Authority | 83.3 | 80.7 | 84.4 | 84.6 | 87.4 | 81.8 |
| 6 | Wendelstein 7-X | 80.6 | 80.2 | 82.2 | 89.2 | 83.9 | 62.9 |
| 7 | ASIPP | 79.4 | 82.1 | 84.3 | 82.3 | 75.7 | 64.9 |
| 8 | EAST | 78.2 | 83.7 | 80.7 | 82.2 | 72.7 | 60.6 |
| 9 | DIII-D | 77.7 | 77.7 | 75.8 | 87.4 | 80.9 | 62.1 |
| 10 | Commonwealth Fusion Systems | 77.4 | 71.4 | 90.4 | 70.7 | 72.1 | 86.6 |
| 11 | CEA IRFM | 76.8 | 74.2 | 78.9 | 79.7 | 87.3 | 67.1 |
| 12 | ITER Organization | 76.2 | 70.3 | 89.4 | 66.8 | 95.6 | 73.2 |
| 13 | ASDEX Upgrade | 75.6 | 76.2 | 72.3 | 87.4 | 81.7 | 55.1 |
| =14 | General Atomics | 75.3 | 69.9 | 78.4 | 79.2 | 75.4 | 75.3 |
| =14 | PPPL | 75.3 | 67.1 | 80.3 | 85.5 | 80.1 | 64.9 |
| 16 | QST | 74.9 | 76.7 | 78.2 | 75.8 | 86.7 | 57.7 |
| 17 | MIT PSFC | 74.4 | 63.9 | 70.8 | 88.9 | 71.8 | 77.7 |
| 18 | CCFE | 74.3 | 73.6 | 72.7 | 79.2 | 80.5 | 65.5 |
| 19 | KSTAR | 73.2 | 79.2 | 71.7 | 77.6 | 77.8 | 53.1 |
| 20 | JT-60SA | 72.9 | 74.4 | 82.8 | 65.4 | 89.1 | 58.4 |
| 21 | KIT | 71.1 | 60.5 | 73.4 | 78.8 | 79.1 | 70.9 |
| 22 | Oak Ridge National Laboratory | 70.8 | 56.3 | 82.8 | 78.1 | 79.8 | 65.4 |
| 23 | KFE | 70.5 | 71.8 | 71.7 | 73.3 | 79.4 | 55.8 |
| 24 | ITER | 70.2 | 61.1 | 95.4 | 44.2 | 97.6 | 79.9 |
| 25 | LLE | 68.5 | 64.3 | 70.5 | 81.9 | 62.6 | 55.8 |
| 26 | EPFL Swiss Plasma Center | 68.0 | 58.4 | 65.9 | 83.2 | 80.3 | 56.3 |
| 27 | OMEGA (LLE) | 67.8 | 66.1 | 65.2 | 84.3 | 61.9 | 50.8 |
| 28 | Forschungszentrum Jülich | 67.0 | 55.5 | 71.7 | 77.8 | 77.2 | 58.9 |
| =29 | LHD | 66.0 | 70.5 | 66.1 | 74.1 | 66.1 | 43.2 |
| =29 | SWIP | 66.0 | 68.2 | 69.8 | 69.8 | 66.2 | 49.8 |
| =31 | NIFS | 65.4 | 60.4 | 70.6 | 76.1 | 71.8 | 46.6 |
| =31 | Sandia National Laboratories | 65.4 | 53.1 | 79.3 | 77.6 | 55.4 | 57.6 |
| 33 | ENEA | 64.4 | 56.1 | 64.7 | 70.6 | 78.6 | 60.8 |
| 34 | TAE Technologies | 61.9 | 51.4 | 77.7 | 61.4 | 55.1 | 67.1 |
| 35 | Tokamak Energy | 61.8 | 52.6 | 64.3 | 64.4 | 70.7 | 66.3 |
| 36 | Kurchatov Institute | 60.2 | 60.1 | 66.3 | 64.5 | 54.6 | 49.1 |
| 37 | Laser Mégajoule | 60.0 | 61.7 | 78.2 | 57.6 | 42.5 | 47.9 |
| 38 | Helion Energy | 59.3 | 56.2 | 82.9 | 40.5 | 40.1 | 78.4 |
| 39 | Los Alamos National Laboratory | 58.2 | 40.3 | 74.1 | 72.1 | 56.9 | 50.3 |
| 40 | Consorzio RFX | 58.1 | 48.5 | 58.1 | 69.5 | 74.3 | 47.2 |
| 41 | ENN Energy Research Institute | 57.9 | 49.4 | 70.7 | 59.3 | 50.1 | 60.5 |
| 42 | Rosatom | 57.1 | 55.4 | 70.8 | 54.6 | 46.3 | 53.7 |
| 43 | Proxima Fusion | 56.3 | 40.5 | 65.7 | 57.9 | 69.1 | 64.4 |
| =44 | CIEMAT | 55.7 | 46.7 | 56.9 | 63.9 | 72.3 | 47.4 |
| =44 | Zap Energy | 55.7 | 42.3 | 67.5 | 64.8 | 48.2 | 56.5 |
| 46 | DIFFER | 55.5 | 40.4 | 55.7 | 71.7 | 69.2 | 49.6 |
| 47 | Institute for Plasma Research | 55.2 | 51.6 | 56.5 | 56.7 | 71.9 | 46.8 |
| 48 | Type One Energy | 53.9 | 39.9 | 60.6 | 58.8 | 60.5 | 60.3 |
| 49 | SHINE Technologies | 53.6 | 51.7 | 63.4 | 40.1 | 48.6 | 70.2 |
| =50 | General Fusion | 53.1 | 44.3 | 53.3 | 58.9 | 59.9 | 56.5 |
| =50 | Kyoto Fusioneering | 53.1 | 41.5 | 55.6 | 48.3 | 71.9 | 68.6 |
| 51–60 | IPP Prague | 52.7 | 46.9 | 48.6 | 63.7 | 70.4 | 39.9 |
| 51–60 | Energy Singularity | 52.4 | 47.9 | 62.8 | 49.8 | 44.4 | 57.2 |
| 51–60 | BKF | 51.0 | 35.4 | 71.7 | 14.2 | 77.1 | 98.8 |
| 51–60 | SG-III | 50.3 | 55.3 | 69.5 | 45.7 | 29.1 | 36.2 |
| 51–60 | Focused Energy | 49.8 | 33.7 | 58.3 | 55.8 | 61.4 | 52.8 |
| 51–60 | Marvel Fusion | 49.5 | 31.8 | 62.6 | 51.7 | 63.7 | 54.2 |
| 51–60 | UW–Madison FTI | 49.2 | 30.6 | 48.8 | 67.3 | 60.7 | 49.2 |
| 51–60 | VTT | 48.2 | 30.8 | 50.2 | 57.2 | 65.2 | 53.9 |
| 51–60 | Pacific Fusion | 47.2 | 31.5 | 76.3 | 46.4 | 36.9 | 48.3 |
| 61–70 | Realta Fusion | 46.5 | 35.4 | 49.2 | 56.1 | 50.7 | 46.5 |
| 61–70 | Ioffe Institute | 45.9 | 40.9 | 47.2 | 58.9 | 43.3 | 34.1 |
| 61–70 | First Light Fusion | 45.5 | 33.4 | 44.1 | 54.6 | 56.4 | 48.9 |
| 61–70 | Thea Energy | 45.1 | 33.1 | 50.2 | 51.8 | 45.6 | 50.8 |
| 61–70 | Renaissance Fusion | 43.1 | 30.8 | 45.2 | 45.1 | 61.4 | 49.7 |
| 61–70 | Gauss Fusion | 42.9 | 30.8 | 47.9 | 42.8 | 55.7 | 52.1 |
| 61–70 | Xcimer Energy | 42.4 | 29.8 | 58.9 | 44.6 | 39.4 | 44.2 |
| 61–70 | IPPLM | 41.9 | 29.3 | 37.3 | 56.5 | 61.5 | 35.5 |
| 61–70 | Startorus Fusion | 41.8 | 36.3 | 50.8 | 39.9 | 38.1 | 46.1 |
| 61–70 | DTU Physics | 41.6 | 25.5 | 41.2 | 59.1 | 57.6 | 34.6 |
| 71–80 | KTH Alfvén Laboratory | 41.5 | 27.6 | 40.1 | 58.4 | 58.1 | 31.8 |
| 71–80 | Helical Fusion | 39.0 | 29.5 | 41.3 | 43.3 | 45.7 | 43.5 |
| 71–80 | Avalanche Energy | 38.0 | 28.7 | 45.2 | 40.6 | 35.6 | 44.4 |
| 71–80 | EX-Fusion | 36.8 | 25.4 | 39.2 | 42.6 | 47.4 | 39.9 |
| 71–80 | Fuse Energy Technologies | 36.8 | 29.6 | 45.9 | 34.5 | 39.2 | 41.1 |
| 71–80 | OpenStar Technologies | 36.5 | 28.2 | 37.8 | 40.3 | 45.4 | 39.4 |
| 71–80 | Novatron Fusion Group | 36.2 | 26.4 | 38.1 | 40.1 | 49.1 | 38.4 |
| 71–80 | ANU Plasma Research Lab | 36.1 | 22.4 | 34.8 | 51.8 | 53.7 | 27.2 |
| 71–80 | Astral Systems | 34.1 | 30.9 | 34.9 | 30.8 | 33.3 | 45.2 |
| 71–80 | HB11 Energy | 33.2 | 20.8 | 33.5 | 42.4 | 43.6 | 35.1 |
| 81–90 | Tokamak Energy France | 32.4 | — | 29.3 | — | 43.1 | 29.5 |
| 81–90 | Longview Fusion Energy Systems | 30.4 | 23.6 | 36.1 | 29.9 | 34.9 | 34.2 |
| 81–90 | UFL-2M | 30.0 | 29.1 | 52.1 | 20.4 | 18.6 | 25.9 |
| 81–90 | NT-Tao | 27.8 | 21.7 | 33.1 | 25.5 | 38.8 | 29.7 |
| 81–90 | Blue Laser Fusion | 26.7 | 19.5 | 36.3 | 21.2 | 33.6 | 32.6 |
| 81–90 | MIFTI | 26.6 | 22.3 | 23.8 | 35.6 | 28.1 | 22.7 |
| 81–90 | LPPFusion | 26.5 | 24.3 | 22.3 | 33.7 | 30.7 | 21.4 |
| 81–90 | HyperJet Fusion | 26.4 | 21.3 | 25.7 | 34.8 | 28.2 | 22.1 |
| 81–90 | Deutelio | 26.1 | 18.2 | 26.8 | 29.7 | 42.8 | 23.8 |
| 81–90 | Stellarex | 26.0 | 20.2 | 27.7 | 30.1 | 30.5 | 25.7 |
| 91–100 | Fusion Fuel Cycles | 25.2 | 19.8 | 23.9 | — | 30.3 | 34.5 |
| 91–100 | Helicity Space | 24.0 | 18.3 | 29.4 | 23.7 | 27.4 | 26.2 |
| 91–100 | Horne Technologies | 20.6 | 18.5 | 17.9 | 24.9 | 20.1 | 21.4 |
| 91–100 | NearStar Fusion | 19.9 | 16.6 | 22.1 | 19.5 | 23.3 | 22.2 |
| 91–100 | Agni Fusion | 19.8 | 14.5 | 21.6 | — | 27.9 | 22.7 |
| 91–100 | Alpha Ring International | 18.6 | 15.9 | 25.1 | 16.3 | 22.2 | 17.1 |
| 91–100 | Fusion Industries | 16.7 | 13.3 | 17.1 | — | 21.4 | 19.7 |
| 91–100 | Crossfield Fusion | 15.7 | 12.2 | 17.5 | — | 22.8 | 15.8 |
| 91–100 | Innoven Energy | 15.7 | 13.4 | 16.6 | 18.7 | 17.3 | 13.2 |
How the scores are arrived at, and where their limits lie, is explained in the Fusion Index methodology. Nominations can be submitted to fusionsindex@kernfusion.eu.