This is an early look at Tokamak Energy’s fusion energy pilot plant being designed as part of the United States’ decadal vision for delivering commercial fusion. The first details of the high-field spherical tokamak were presented at the industry-leading Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Plasma Physics in Atlanta, Georgia last week.
The Department of Energy (DOE) milestone-based fusion development program was established as a competition for private companies to bring fusion towards technical and commercial viability. Tokamak Energy is designing a pilot plant capable of generating 800 megawatts (MW) of fusion power and 85MW of net electricity – enough to power and heat more than 70,000 American homes.
The plant will include a complete set of new generation high temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets to confine and control the deuterium and tritium hydrogen fuel in a plasma many times hotter than the centre of the sun. Initial designs are for the tokamak to have an aspect ratio of 2.0, plasma major radius of 4.25 metres and a magnetic field of 4.25 Tesla, as well as a liquid lithium tritium breeding blanket.
Michael Ginsberg, President of Tokamak Energy Inc., said: “The first design details of our high-field spherical tokamak created great excitement at the prestigious APS conference. We are delighted by the reception from an expert crowd and energised on our mission to demonstrate net power from this pilot plant in the mid-2030s, paving the way for globally deployable carbon-free fusion energy. We now look forward to working with our partners in the U.S. to evolve and progress this design.”
Tokamak Energy, which has strong links with U.S. national labs and universities, is the only private company with more than 10 years’ experience of designing, building and operating tokamaks. It is the first private fusion company to reach a plasma temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius in a spherical tokamak.
Fusion power stations will provide safe and secure clean energy to towns and cities, and heat for industry. One kilogram of fusion fuel releases the same amount of energy as burning around 10 million kilograms of coal with no harmful emissions.
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