One of the major tasks facing the international fusion program is the design and construction of future fusion devices that can significantly extend the results obtained so far. ORNL has led or participated in a number of design studies for future fusion devices.

The US played a leading role in the design of the ICRF system for the international ITER project, designing, building, and testing a prototype ICRF antenna for ITER.       The FIRE experiment is designed to be a high-magnetic-field, copper-coil burning-plasma experiment. Ion cyclotron heating is the primary method planned for heating to fusion burn conditions. ORNL has led the ICRF system design work.