TAE, UKAEA joint venture formally established

The joint venture was announced in December 2025 as part of a bilateral and reciprocal investment commitment to commercialise TAE's proprietary particle accelerator technology for the global market. TAE Beam UK is a collaborative entity that will harness the partners' collective scientific leadership, commercialisation experience and market innovation to develop this highly versatile advanced particle accelerator technology, beginning with neutral beams for fusion. The venture aims to design, develop, and ultimately manufacture and service neutral beams for a wide range of fusion approaches, as well as adapt the accelerator technology for state-of-the-art cancer therapeutics, and other applications like food safety and homeland security.

TAE's approach to fusion combines advanced accelerator and plasma physics, and uses abundant, non-radioactive hydrogen-boron (p-B11) as a fuel source. The proprietary magnetic beam-driven field-reversed configuration (FRC) technology injects high-energy hydrogen atoms into the plasma to make the system more stable and better confined. This solution is compact and energy efficient, California-based TAE says.

_{TAE Technologies' neutral beam (Image: TAE Technologies)}

The same accelerator technology that produced TAE's sophisticated neutral beam system for fusion has also been adapted for TAE's medical technology subsidiary, TAE Life Sciences, to provide a non-invasive, targeted treatment for complex and often inoperable cancers.

The UKAEA has led the way in fusion energy research for over 40 years, developing world-class facilities and technical expertise through its operation of the Joint European Torus (JET)'s neutral beam system.

"Commercial fusion power has the potential to transform energy independence and access to cost-competitive electricity," said TAE Technologies CEO Michl Binderbauer. "Neutral beams are a key component for that vision to become reality. Establishing TAE Beam UK with our colleagues in Culham is an important step in translating breakthrough science into deployable technology. In addition to producing neutral beams for TAE's first power plant design, TAE Beam UK is poised to make our world-leading technology available for a wide range of fusion configurations – supporting both our commercialisation roadmap and the broader fusion ecosystem."

"Formalising and funding TAE Beam UK demonstrates clear commitment and progress toward commercialisation," said Tim Bestwick, CEO of UKAEA, which carries out fusion energy research on behalf of the UK government.

Announcing the joint venture in December, UKAEA said it planned to make an equity investment of GBP5.6 million (USD7.5 million) in this new venture, including engaging some of the world's best scientists to work on this critical fusion technology and leverage expertise built up over decades of operating JET. TAE Beam UK is supported by TAE's own nine-figure investment in the technology due to TAE's own usage requirements over the next several years.