News: Optoelectronics
21 October 2025
Director of Blue Laser Fusion Energy Collaborative Research Institute selected as project manager for Japan’s Fusion Energy Moonshot Program Goal 10
The director of the Blue Laser Fusion Energy Collaborative Research Institute — jointly established by Blue Laser Fusion Inc (BLF) of Santa Barbara, CA, USA and the University of Osaka (UOsaka) — has been selected as one of the project managers (PMs) for Japan’s Moonshot Research and Development Program to develop a fusion reactor using BLF’s laser technology.
Led by the BLF Energy Collaborative Research Institute’s director professor Shinsuke Fujioka of the High Energy Density Science Division in the UOsaka Institute of Laser Engineering (ILE), the project is a multi-year initiative focused on advancing BLF’s laser, target ignition and reactor design, with a goal of demonstration of a laser-based fusion energy generation system. The Institute will collaborate with other research partners, with the detailed project plan to be finalized in consultation with the program director and the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).
The JST implements the Moonshot Program, which is led by Japan’s Cabinet Office. The program pursues challenging R&D concepts set by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in order to solve issues facing Japan’s future society. Moonshot Program Goal 10 is related to fusion energy: “Realization of a dynamic society in harmony with the global environment and free from resource constraints, through diverse applications of fusion energy….”
Selection of the director of the BLF Energy Collaborative Research Institute as a project manager for Moonshot Program Goal 10 results from a competitive process led by JST and their external experts, including open calls and a review of a large number of applications, followed by multiple rounds of document and interview screening, culminating in final selection of a small number of university and corporate teams.
“We are pleased to collaborate with the University of Osaka, Japan’s leading laser fusion research and technology institution, as we work to accelerate the commercialization of laser-based fusion energy,” says Blue Laser Fusion’s founder & CEO (and 2014 Nobel Prize Winner) Dr Shuji Nakamura. “BLF will continue to contribute, together with the University of Osaka, to solving Japan’s energy challenges,” he adds.
Blue Laser Fusion says that its enabling technology innovations include a high-efficiency, cost-effective optical enhancement cavity (OEC) laser delivering megajoule-class pulse energy at a high repetition rate, coupled with a high-gain fuel target to achieve commercial fusion. Beyond the Moonshot Program selection, BLF has won US Department of Energy INFUSE projects in collaborations with Caltech and Colorado State University, and the company is a corporate partner in the US DOE IFE-Star RISE HUB for inertial fusion energy. Additionally, Blue Laser Fusion is on the industrial council for the US DOE FIRE Collaboratives led by General Atomics on fusion targets and by Idaho National Labs on fusion reactor design.
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