Tokomak Energy Completing a Second Prototype in 2026

Tokamak Energy’s roadmap is for commercial fusion power plants deployed in the mid-2030s. They plan to complete the ST80-HTS prototype reactor in 2026 “to demonstrate the full potential of high temperature superconducting magnets”. They will then design and build a fusion pilot plant, ST-E1, which is slated to demonstrate the capability to deliver electricity – producing up to 200 MW of net electrical power – in the early 2030s.

Tokamak Energy’s compact spherical tokamak, ST80-HTS, will demonstrate multiple technologies required for the delivery of clean, sustainable fusion energy. This includes a complete set of cutting-edge high temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets to confine and control the hydrogen fuel, which becomes plasma many times hotter than the sun.

Tokamak Energy’s current ST40 fusion device in nearby Milton Park, Oxfordshire, has recently been upgraded to enable experiments relating to future features that will be incorporated in both ST80-HTS and ST-E1. Last year it achieved a 100 million degrees Celsius fusion plasma – the highest temperature ever recorded in a compact spherical tokamak.

6 thoughts on “Tokomak Energy Completing a Second Prototype in 2026”

  1. Another ridiculous story with zero meaningful information. I’ll take that to mean that it is 99 percent inefficient

  2. 2030s … is 12 years off.

    Have they demonstrated a solution to the ‘inner wall problem’?
    How about the ρTt confinement stability problem?
    And what of the abundant-neutrons irradiating everything problem?
    What will be their fuel mix? Convenient, easiest, neutron-dirty T + D?

    Basically I’m in awe of the pretensions-of-greatness that this announcement embodies. Not trying to throw cold water on a hot topic (pun intended), but the above issues are so blithely sidelined. And they’re the real problems to solve before any 200 megawatt reactors are demonstrated.

  3. They are the ones who made 20 T magnets few years ago. I think that recently whole set was produced (38 km tape). If you get stronger magnetic field the reactor can be much smaller.

    • Specifically by doubling the magnetic field strength they can make the reactor 4 times smaller, which is a significant plus point for investors considering the costs of fusion development.

      Even then sc tape based magnets of 45 T have been demonstrated if not at this size, and I would expect that by the time this 2026 reactor is finished that said sc tapes will be more mature, so the reactor that comes after ST80 could have a significantly leg up in efficiency.

      • Significant you say? Well that settles it then. You mean I take it that it will go all the way from being 99 percent inefficient to say 97 percent inefficient? That’s super significant.

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