Gauss Fusion, the European green tech company founded to build the continent’s first commercial fusion power plant, has released its conceptual design report (CDR).
The CDR presents a comprehensive conceptual blueprint for the development of the fusion power plant GIGA and shows how fusion can move from scientific research to commercial reality.
The CDR was presented days after the German government announced a €2 billion fusion action plan. The action plan builds on Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s coalition agreement in May 2025, which outlined the German government’s ambition to build the world’s first fusion power plant.
Gauss Fusion’s work, which combines an industrialization roadmap and comprehensive technology design with CDR, will be shared with the federal government within the next 10 days, placing the company at the center of Europe’s race to deliver fusion power.
Addressing the critical systems needed to build a fusion power plant
Gauss Fusion’s CDR was developed over three years with the support of industry partners across Europe and consists of over 1,000 pages of technical details.
This report covers all the critical systems needed to build the first fusion power plant, from the overall architecture, design foundation, and design concepts, to the safety framework, qualification strategy, systems engineering, lifecycle operations, and radioactive waste considerations.
The CDR establishes the cost and schedule framework for the first commercial fusion power plant. This report defines long-term cost and schedule goals within orders of magnitude, reflecting the uncertainties associated with novel technology. The exercise will cost between 15 and 18 billion euros (2025 estimate) to realize the first commercial fusion reactor by the mid-2040s.
From its inception, Gauss Fusion has sought to implement a world-class project performance approach that follows established best practices in project management and uses proactive risk and opportunity management and key performance indicators to systematically improve project outcomes.
The report also embodies Gauss Fusion’s vision of a ‘Eurofighter for Fusion’. It is a pan-European program that combines industrial know-how, national investment and supply chain capabilities to provide energy sovereignty for Europe. The program is structured in milestone-based phases that allow partners, shareholders, collaborators, and other stakeholders to systematically manage program performance, reduce risk, and increase technology readiness.
Bringing together top engineers and researchers from across Europe
The project brings together major European engineering and research partners, including those based in the following European countries:
Italy: In cooperation with the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) and the Italian Consortium of Applied Superconductors (ICAS). For general construction, it will partner with SIMIC and work with ASG Superconductors with support from Gauss Fusion shareholder Malacalza Family. France: Collaboration with Alsymex on manufacturing feasibility and prototype development with support from Gauss Fusion shareholder Alcen. Partner with Assystem across systems engineering. And we are working with CEA. Spain: We are working with another shareholder, IDOM, on the complex engineering design of the broader fuel cycle and aiming for a strategic collaboration with IFMIF-DONES. Germany: In collaboration with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the Jülich Research Center (FZJ) and the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP). It is supported by shareholder RI Research Instruments and strategic partner Bruker EAS.
These alliances support Gauss Fusion’s mission to combine industrial capabilities, research excellence and supply chain expertise, thereby securing Europe’s industrial leadership in Fusion. The company is developing the most comprehensive technology concept for a fusion power plant with the support of a growing European industrial alliance.
From plasma physics to materials science: Accelerating scientific development
CDR covers the entire spectrum of parallel development, from plasma physics to grid feed-in, materials science to lifecycle management.
Borrowing techniques from the aerospace industry, Gauss Fusion employs concurrent engineering to accelerate design, bringing together multidisciplinary teams working in parallel on different design processes in the same location. Benefits include significant efficiencies in terms of costs and project outcomes during the early design stages.
Milena Roveda, CEO of Gauss Fusion, said: “Our conceptual design report is the culmination of three years of work to translate the promise of fusion into GIGA, a reliable and practical conceptual-level power plant design. It shows that European industry has the capabilities needed to move from vision to engineering reality.”
“CDR brings together the know-how of hundreds of experts across Europe, proving that the technology, materials and supply chains needed for convergence are within reach.
“The next step is to move from concept to detailed engineering and turn this design into an industrial blueprint for Europe’s first generation of fusion power plants.”
In addition to partners, collaborators and shareholders, the role of the Federal Ministry of Technology (BMFTR) is important in elucidating the key technologies that will enable convergence, especially through the implementation of public-private partnerships.
Gauss Fusion’s various collaboration schemes will be expanded in the next design phase, which is expected to begin after the review of the CDR by an independent committee in January 2026.
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