Helion Is First Fusion Energy Company to Get US Regulatory Licenses, Company Says

Polaris is Helion Energy's seventh-generation nuclear fusion prototype, designed to demonstrate the world's first electricity production from a fusion device. It is a 60-foot-long Field-Reversed Configuration (FRC) generator that uses magnetic compression to heat plasma to 150 million degrees Celsius, a milestone achieved in early 2026. Helion Energy

Helion Energy has secured the regulatory licenses needed to begin building and operating the world’s first nuclear fusion power plant in Malaga, Washington, the company said June 16.

The Washington Department of Health (DOH) approved Helion’s Radioactive Materials License and Radioactive Air Emissions License for the company’s Orion facility, located about 150 miles east of Seattle in Chelan County.

“We are extremely proud to be granted these licenses from the Washington DOH,” David Kirtley, CEO of Helion Energy, said in a statement.

The plant is designed to deliver fusion electricity to the power grid.

The announcement opens the door for practical, commercial, and safe fusion power, Kirtley said.

“The people who succeed in fusion are part dreamer, part doer. Dreamers of a better world, with the grit to make it happen,” Kirtley said in an X post on June 12.

Kirtley, an expert in plasma and fusion technologies, co-founded the company in 2013 with Chris Pihl, George Votroubek, and John Slough. The colleagues were working as a team on space technologies before pivoting to nuclear fusion.

The state licenses were granted after the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission decided in March to regulate byproducts from commercial fusion machines under a different category, placing them with hospital waste and particle accelerators instead of fission reactors.

The decision changed fusion’s safety profile and allowed the state to approve Helion’s operating licenses, the company said.

“We’re grateful to partner with a world-class company like Helion,” said Jill Wood, director of the Washington DOH Office of Radiation. “Leading radioactive regulatory oversight for the fusion industry in Washington state is an honor and is essential to protecting public health while advancing clean energy.”

In 2023, the company signed the world’s first-ever fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft to provide 50 megawatts of electricity starting in 2028.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) said in February that fusion could provide low-cost electricity for the state.

Washington-based Helion Energy says it is the first U.S. fusion energy firm to clear regulatory licenses on June 16, 2026. Courtesy of Helion Energy

“Fusion could provide vast amounts of the type of power we need to keep electricity prices down and increase America’s economic competitiveness,” Cantwell said in an X post Feb. 25.

The company, based in Washington state, announced on June 4 that it raised $465 million in investment funds to speed up commercial deployment of fusion and expand its manufacturing capacity.

The latest round of funding brings the total invested in Helion to $1.5 billion and values the company at $15.5 billion.

Helion Energy announced in February 2026 that its Polaris nuclear fusion prototype reactor achieved plasma temperatures of about 270 million degrees Fahrenheit, setting a nuclear fusion record. Helion Energy

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman served as chairman of the Helion Energy board of directors for a decade but stepped down from the position in March to avoid conflicts of interest after Helion expressed an interest in partnering with OpenAI.

Altman invested $375 million in the nuclear fusion startup in 2021 and holds roughly a one-third equity stake in the company that was worth more than $1.6 billion at the end of 2025, he confirmed during a trial over OpenAI’s for-profit operations in May.