The Biden administration has written the first check for the nuclear fusion project that Eni is developing in collaboration with MIT in Boston under the CFS (Commonwealth Fusion System) joint venture. The Department of Energy has allocated a modest amount of $15 million, but it is only the beginning, and it has the value of a marketable credential: it recognizes the validity of the research and development program to produce energy from commercial fusion. The Doe's funding is actually disbursed in stages, via the Milestone program, which is linked to the Net-Zero Game Changers initiative, which is inspired by NASA's COTS (Commercial Orbital Transportation Services): the amounts of funding are disbursed only when companies meet the pre-established goals, so taxpayers do not have to bear any technical or financial risk. The $15 million tranche is part of the program's first phase, following CFS's selection as one of eight merger companies in the United States to receive $46 million in 2023. The public quota covers only a small portion of the investments planned for the Eni-MIT project. CFS has already raised $1.8 billion in funding to help build the Sparc prototype, which will be ready in 2026. According to rumors, a new fundraising campaign will begin for Arc, the first commercial power plant capable of feeding fusion energy into the electricity grid. The CFS plan envisions the construction of up to 10,000 Arcs over the next 20 years. Eni has never provided detailed investment figures, but investment banks estimate that Sparc will require at least $500 million and Arc will require three times that amount, or $1.5 billion.
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