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Tokamak Energy, Ltd.
Company typePrivate
IndustryFusion Power
Founded2009; 15 years ago (2009)
HeadquartersOxford, United Kingdom
Key people
Number of employees
250
SubsidiariesTokamak Energy Inc.
Websitewww.tokamakenergy.co.uk

Tokamak Energy is a fusion power company based near Oxford in the United Kingdom,[1] established in 2009.[2] The company is pursuing the global deployment of commercial fusion energy in the 2030s through the combined development of spherical tokamaks with high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets. It is also developing HTS magnet technology for other applications.

History

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Tokamak Energy is a spin-off from the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy based in Oxfordshire.[3] As of 2022, the company had raised $250m, comprising $50m from the UK and US governments and $200m from private investors, including L&G Capital, Dr. Hans-Peter Wild, and David Harding, CEO of Winton Capital.[2]

One of the company's first devices was the copper magnet-based ST-25; in 2015 this was upgraded with rare earth–barium–copper oxide (REBCO) high temperature superconductors (HTS) to the ST-25HTS.[4]

The company's most recently developed and currently operating device is the ST40 high-field compact spherical tokamak, which reached a plasma temperature of 15 million degrees Celsius in 2018[5][6][7] and then in March 2022 achieved a landmark plasma ion temperature in excess of 100 million degrees Celsius,[8] considered the threshold for commercial fusion. A peer-reviewed scientific paper on the achievement has been published by the Institute of Physics.[9]

Tokamak Energy is a leader in HTS magnet development. In 2020 the company announced it had achieved a world record 24 Tesla field at 20K with its patented technology. In 2023, it announced it had built a world-first set of new generation HTS magnets to be assembled and tested in fusion power plant-relevant scenarios in its new Demo4 in-house facility.[10] It is also developing HTS technology for applications outside of fusion energy.

In October 2022, the UKAEA and Tokamak Energy announced a five-year framework agreement to collaborate on developing spherical tokamaks for power generation. The collaboration focuses on areas including materials development and testing, power generation, fuel cycle, diagnostics, and remote handling,[11] in the UKAEA's STEP machine.

In May 2023, the United States Department of Energy granted the company's US subsidiary, Tokamak Energy Inc., additional funding[12] through its Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program, which partners selected companies with U.S. national laboratories, universities, and other institutions to advance designs and R&D for fusion power plants, representing a major step in the U.S.'s commitment to a pilot-scale demonstration of fusion within a decade.

On 27 July 2023, Tokamak Energy announced a partnership with Sumitomo Corporation for the development, implementation, and scaling up of commercial fusion energy in Japan and worldwide.[13]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Energy, Tokamak. "Contact » Tokamak Energy". Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Tokamak Energy on track to be the first private company to achieve 100 million degree plasma temperature, paving the way to commercial fusion energy". www.itnewsonline.com. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
  3. ^ "ST40 achieves 15-million-degree target - World Nuclear News". world-nuclear-news.org. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  4. ^ Windridge, Melanie (2020), "Tokamak Energy", Commercialising Fusion Energy, IOP Publishing, doi:10.1088/978-0-7503-2719-0ch5, ISBN 978-0-7503-2719-0, S2CID 241527511, retrieved 13 December 2021
  5. ^ "Tokamak Energy hits 15 million degree fusion milestone". The Engineer. 6 June 2018. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  6. ^ "Fusion power is attracting private-sector interest". The Economist. 2 May 2019. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  7. ^ Gryaznevich, M.; Nicolai, A.; Chuyanov, V.; Team, Tokamak Energy Ltd. (2021). "St40 Progress Towards Optimized Neutron Production". Problems of Atomic Science and Technology, Ser. Thermonuclear Fusion. 44 (2): 107–110. doi:10.21517/0202-3822-2021-44-2-107-110. ISSN 0202-3822. S2CID 238914316.
  8. ^ "Tokamak Energy achieves crucial plasma temperature". World Nuclear News. 10 March 2022. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  9. ^ McNamara, S.A.M.; Asunta, O.; Bland, J.; Buxton, P.F.; Colgan, C.; Dnestrovskii, A.; Gemmell, M.; Gryaznevich, M.; Hoffman, D.; Janky, F.; Lister, J.B.; Lowe, H.F.; Mirfayzi, R.S.; Naylor, G.; Nemytov, V. (17 March 2023). "Achievement of ion temperatures in excess of 100 million degrees Kelvin in the compact high-field spherical tokamak ST40". Nuclear Fusion. 63 (5): 054002. Bibcode:2023NucFu..63e4002M. doi:10.1088/1741-4326/acbec8. ISSN 0029-5515.
  10. ^ "The Engineer - World-first magnets set for fusion power plant testing". The Engineer. 2 September 2023. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  11. ^ International, Power Engineering (10 October 2022). "Tokamak Energy and UKAEA team up to drive fusion innovation". Power Engineering International. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  12. ^ "DOE Announces $46 Million for Commercial Fusion Energy Development". Energy.gov. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  13. ^ "British-Japanese partnership for fusion development". World Nuclear News. 27 July 2023.
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