Bill Gates-backed fusion startup Type One Energy has taken a concrete step toward commercial power generation, submitting the first licensing paperwork for a 350 MWe plant in Tennessee. The company aims to turn a retired coal site into a grid-scale fusion facility, betting that its stellarator design can deliver steady, carbon-free electricity on a timeline that would put fusion into the mainstream energy mix rather than the distant future.
The move signals a shift in fusion from lab-scale experiments to regulated infrastructure, with Type One Energy aligning its technology, financing, and utility partnerships around a specific project: the Infinity One reactor at the former Bull Run coal plant. If the company can meet its own schedule, the First Infinity unit could be producing power before the end of the decade, testing whether fusion can compete with today’s large nuclear and gas plants.
The first commercial-scale fusion license bid
Type One Energy and the Tennessee Valley Authority are jointly pursuing a byproduct material licence for a 350 MWe fusion plant in Tennessee, a filing that marks one of the first attempts to put a commercial-scale fusion reactor under a full state regulatory framework. According to Type One Energy, the application goes to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, which will assess how the Infinity One reactor handles radioactive byproducts and other safety issues. The company is not just seeking a research permit, it is asking to build a plant sized to rival conventional nuclear units, which is why the 350 MWe figure matters for the broader industry.
Reporting attributed By David Dalton notes that the First Infinity reactor is scheduled for commissioning and startup in 2029, a timeline that would put fusion power on the grid within a few years rather than decades. The same account explains that Type One Energy is developing the Infinity One device as the first phase of a broader program, coordinating closely with state regulators at TDEC to fit fusion into the existing byproduct materials regulatory framework. That choice of pathway matters, because it shows regulators are adapting existing nuclear rules to fusion instead of building an entirely new regime from scratch.
Repurposing Bull Run with TVA as anchor partner
The physical home for Infinity One is the Bull Run site in Tennessee, a coal plant that TVA retired in 2023 and is now being repositioned as a fusion hub. Type One Energy is partnering with TVA to reuse the existing grid connections, cooling water systems, and industrial footprint at Bull Run, which reduces both cost and permitting complexity compared with a greenfield site. The retired plant’s infrastructure was designed for baseload coal generation, so it is already wired into the regional transmission network at a scale that matches the 350 MWe target for Infinity One.
A separate account of the project underscores that Type One Energy and TVA have been working together since February 2024, sharing design information and operational assumptions to make sure the fusion plant can plug into TVA’s system as reliably as a conventional generator. That long lead time is critical, because TVA is not just a landlord, it is the prospective offtaker that will have to integrate Infinity One’s output into its planning for coal retirements, nuclear uprates, and new renewables. For a utility that serves multiple states, the decision to host a first-of-a-kind fusion plant at Bull Run is a signal that fusion is being treated as a serious candidate for future baseload capacity.
Inside Project Infinity and the Infinity One design
Type One Energy groups its Tennessee plans under Project Infinity, a multi-stage program that starts with the Infinity One device and could expand to additional reactors if the first unit performs as expected. The first phase of Project Infinity centers on deploying Infinity One as an operational power plant, not just a physics experiment, with Type One Energy responsible for operating the reactor. That framing matters because it forces the company to think in terms of capacity factors, maintenance schedules, and grid services, the same metrics that govern coal, gas, and fission plants.
Technically, Infinity One is built around a stellarator, a magnetic confinement configuration that twists the plasma path into a complex three-dimensional shape to keep it stable without the large pulsed currents used in tokamaks. As Type One has outlined, the company will employ magnetic confinement with magnets arranged in a stellarator geometry, which is designed to provide inherently steady-state operation. That choice aligns with TVA’s need for continuous baseload power and differentiates Infinity One from pulsed fusion concepts that might be better suited to industrial heat or hydrogen production than to round-the-clock electricity.
Regulatory path and Tennessee’s fusion framework
For Infinity One to move from concept to construction, Type One Energy has to navigate a regulatory landscape that was originally built for fission reactors and medical isotopes. The company and TVA have submitted a byproduct material licence application to TDEC, as described in licence filings, which will govern how the plant handles tritium and other regulated materials. That process is separate from local land use and construction permits, but it is central to public acceptance, because it sets the rules for radiation protection, waste handling, and emergency planning.
State-level reporting notes that “We have been working closely together since February 2024, sharing relevant design information and knowledge that is essential to establishing the byproduct materials regulatory framework,” a reference to the collaboration between Type One Energy and Tennessee officials that appears in Jan coverage of the application. That quote underscores how early the company engaged with regulators, effectively co-designing the oversight structure rather than waiting for rules to be imposed after the technology was locked in. If Tennessee’s approach proves workable, it could become a template for other states that want to host fusion projects without rewriting their entire nuclear codes.
Bill Gates, funding firepower, and the road to 2029
Behind the technical and regulatory milestones is a significant pool of private capital, anchored by Bill Gates and other climate-focused investors who see fusion as a complement to renewables and advanced fission. Earlier this year, Bill Gates-backed Type One Energy raised $87 ahead of a planned $250 Series B, a round detailed by Tim De Chant at 8:39 AM PST that is intended to carry the company through key design and licensing milestones. That funding sits on top of a broader capital stack that includes both strategic and financial investors who are betting that a 350 MWe fusion plant can be competitive with large-scale fission and gas in regulated utility markets.
Additional reporting on the company’s financing describes an $87 Million Convertible Note and a $250 Million Series B Pipeline, with the $87 Million raised through a convertible note that will later convert into equity in the $250 Million Series, as laid out in Million Convertible Note disclosures. Those funds are earmarked to build out the company’s commercial Pipeline and to scale its stellarator technology into baseload power to the grid, bridging the gap between prototype hardware and a fully financed 350 MWe plant. In parallel, coverage of the same raise notes that Type One Energy secured $87M ahead of a $250M Series B, with Series details emphasizing that the goal is to deliver the reliability of traditional baseload facilities but without the pollution.
From my perspective, the combination of a concrete site at Bull Run, a defined regulatory path in Tennessee, and a funding structure that includes $87 M and a $250 M follow-on gives Type One Energy a clearer runway than many fusion peers that are still focused on laboratory milestones. The company’s own description of its capital plan, which highlights the $87 Million and $250 Million figures in the context of a staged Million Series, suggests that investors are underwriting not just a single reactor but a potential fleet. If Infinity One meets its 2029 target, the 350 MWe plant at Bull Run could become the reference model for how fusion integrates into existing coal and nuclear grids, turning a historic licence filing into a template for the next generation of baseload power.
More from Morning Overview