UW–Madison HSX researchers secure two DOE INFUSE awards to advance fusion technology

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Helically Symmetric eXperiment (HSX) are accelerating the deployment of economical fusion technologies with support from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

The HSX research group, led by Associate Professor Benedikt Geiger, received two Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) awards that are part of $8.5 million in DOE funding dedicated to advancing fusion through strategic partnerships between private fusion companies, DOE national laboratories, and universities. 

One project, led by Dr. Mark Nornberg, involves testing a multi-energy radiative bolometer—a diagnostic used to measure heat loss from a fusion plasma—on the HSX stellarator. The device was developed by Glen Wurden of Los Alamos Plasma Technologies LLC and Chris Yung of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

The sensor converts the flux of hot particles and x-rays emanating from the plasma into a heat pattern that is imaged with an infrared camera, generating measurements that are critical for managing intense heat deposits on the structural surfaces of a fusion reactor. 

Dr. Alexis Wolfmeister is leading the other project in collaboration with Type One Energy. The project is a follow-up to a previous INFUSE grant awarded in September 2025 to develop a highly optimized wide-range impurity monitoring spectrometer for Type One Energy’s Infinity One fusion pilot plant. 

The current INFUSE grant employs this spectrometer, with the goal of developing an artificial intelligence and machine learning system to act as a “smart impurity monitor” for Type One Energy’s Infinity One stellarator. Impurity line emission signals observed from the plasma will act as the inputs to the smart monitor. The system will detect leaks, contamination, or damage to the machine’s interior based on those signals and automatically alert the control systems to fix the problem. 

Both of these projects leverage HSX’s flexibility as a university research facility, the unique existing data from the device, and the extensive experience of the HSX team to help bring clean commercial fusion energy to the grid.