Madison-based Realta Fusion has found a new local home after a years-long, nationwide search for space to commercialize its fusion energy technology.
Realta announced plans today to occupy a portion of OM Station, the former Oscar Mayer plant and corporate headquarters, located at 910 Mayer Ave. on Madison’s east side. Realta will occupy an undisclosed portion of the 1.7 million-square-foot property, which has sat largely vacant since its closure in 2017. Oscar Mayer purchased its first Madison processing facility in 1919 and moved its headquarters from Chicago to Madison in 1957 after the death of company founder Oscar F. Mayer. At one time the company had thousands of employees in Madison, but in 2017 the complex was shut down by parent company Kraft Heinz and Oscar Mayer’s headquarters was moved back to Chicago.
Now Realta Fusion is poised to bring new life to the complex. The company’s lease is being negotiated with the property’s owner.
The building that Realta Fusion will occupy, to be dubbed Realta Forge, is at least ten times larger than Realta’s current facility in Madison and will act as the company’s corporate headquarters, primary research and development arena, and home to its prototype magnetic mirror fusion machine called Hammir. The company plans to move into Realta Forge before the end of the year.
Company plans to add 550 jobs
Kieran Furlong
The new space will relocate Realta’s 50 employees from its current headquarters, located at 1200 John Q Hammons Dr. on Madison’s west side, and add 550 additional employees over the next five years, totaling 600 people on staff in both technical and non-technical roles, according to Kieran Furlong, chief executive officer and co-founder of Realta Fusion.
Realta’s technology, which was tested through the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Wisconsin High-field Axisymmetric Mirror (WHAM) project conducted two years ago, involves magnetic mirrors that confine plasma between two high-field superconducting magnets. The strong magnetic fields cause charged particles to bounce back and forth. The plasma is heated to temperatures that are ten times hotter than the surface of the sun.
Without an exact figure, Furlong said the new headquarters and R&D project will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to complete. It is receiving up to $55 million in funds from the State of Wisconsin and City of Madison.
The financial incentive package, from which a portion of the project is being funded, includes an estimated $37.5 million in state sales and use tax exemptions, up to $15 million in performance-based enterprise zone tax credits from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. (WEDC), and $2.8 million in tax incremental financing from the city, according to a press release.
“In terms of cash today, avoided costs tomorrow, and accelerating progress, this is the most impactful state-supported fusion deal ever done in the United States,” said Realta’s vice president of technical development Dominick Bindl, who led the company’s site selection effort. “Wisconsin has taken unprecedented steps toward becoming the most credible regional hub for fusion activity in the country.”
Before selecting its Madison site, Realta considered comparable sites in Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, Tennessee and others.
Wisconsin has strong position in fusion industry
Furlong sees significant opportunity in the fusion industry as it relates to Wisconsin’s manufacturing infrastructure.
“It’s happening now,” Furlong said. “There’s already companies in Wisconsin who’ve had good business manufacturing components for fusion companies… As we grow and as the technology matures, we’re going to have more and more people building stuff, and that’s something that I think the business community in the Milwaukee area should definitely be aware of.”
Furlong also hopes to see a significant portion of conventional nuclear facilities in the U.S. using Realta’s technology and machines by 2050.
Governor Tony Evers and WEDC, led by chief executive officer John W. Miller, were both “instrumental” in paving the way for Realta to materialize its expansion, according to Realta Fusion’s press release. In April, Evers signed legislation into law exempting capital expenditures on fusion energy projects from state sales tax. On behalf of WEDC, Miller proposed a performance-based offer to Realta for enterprise zone tax credits in the largest commitment to a startup in Wisconsin’s history, according to the press release.
“Fusion energy is not only good for our planet and our power grid, but it plays to all of our strengths as a state with our world-class research universities, research laboratories, and an incredible manufacturing and supply chain network supported by our dedicated and highly skilled workforce,” said Evers. “Thanks in large part due to our efforts, we are getting closer every day to making fusion power part of our energy infrastructure and a commercially viable source of energy, and this new partnership will only strengthen that work. We are thrilled to help Realta grow its science and engineering expertise, build up its technology, and bring the economic benefits of fusion home to Wisconsin.”
“Fusion energy is an emerging global industry where Wisconsin and the Great Lakes region are uniquely positioned to lead,” said Miller. “WEDC welcomes Realta’s decision to stay in Wisconsin and continue its game-changing work where it all began.”
Wisconsin’s growing nuclear fusion landscape was the subject of a BizTimes story published in June 2025.
