The Kurchatov Institute (Национальный исследовательский центр «Курчатовский институт») is the Soviet Union’s leading nuclear and fusion research institution. Its fusion physics division, under Academician Artsimovich, was active as early as 1965, conducting tokamak experiments with the T-3 and contributing the helium-3 theoretical modelling that informed the Zvezda Memorandum’s resource projections. The T-15 tokamak achieved first plasma in 1988. Major milestones in this era include the T-20 tokamak achieving Q > 1 for sustained periods (2024) — net energy gain from fusion — and the T-22 achieving sustained D-He3 plasma confinement for 8.3 seconds (October 2035). The institute’s fusion research is institutionally connected to the MTSS Artsimovich Laboratory, which receives He-3 samples extracted from the lunar south pole by the Zvezda base and uses RAZUM-class AI models on Chinese accelerator chips for plasma confinement simulation.