Tokamak Vitality will obtain US and UK assist for $52 million fusion reactor modernization

Only two weeks since breeding $125 million in financingBritish scale-up Tokamak Energy has secured US and UK support to upgrade its ST40 fusion power plant.

The US Department of Energy (DOE), the United Kingdom Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), and Tokamak Energy will jointly sponsor a $52 million upgrade of the Oxfordshire fusion plant.

“Fusion has the potential to be a clean and sustainable source of energy and transform the way we power our country and countries around the world,” said Kerry McCarthy, Minister for Climate at DESNZ.

“This strategic partnership is therefore crucial to develop this new and exciting technology and bring it into use more quickly,” he said.

The 💜 of EU technology

The latest rumors from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise founder Boris and questionable AI art. It's free in your inbox every week. Register now!

The ST40 is a spherical tokamak, a circular fusion reactor uses giant magnets to confine super-hot plasma and create the conditions needed to fuse atoms.

In 2022, the ST40 became the first private fusion reactor to reach 100 million °C – six times hotter than the core of our nearest star. The machine is constantly evolving as Tokamak Energy strives to build something commercially viable.

This latest upgrade includes coating the inside of the ST40 with lithium. Research suggests The element can help the walls of fusion reactors better withstand extreme temperatures.

But the new project is not just a redesign of the fusion reactor. “It provides tremendous leverage to advance fusion science and technology as a whole.” the DOEs said Dr. Geraldine Richmond.

Under the agreement, researchers at universities and national laboratories in both countries can also benefit from research conducted on the ST40 tokamak.

TThe project is scheduled to begin next year. The $52 million in fThe amount is divided equally between all three partners.

Tokamak Energy has already raised $335 million for fusion energy, making it Europe's best-funded private fusion energy company.

The company, which spun out of Britain's Atomic Energy Agency in 2009, is pursuing a type of tokamak that is more compact than traditional donut reactors like the one ITER fusion facility under construction in France. According to the company, this shape allows for better confinement of the super-hot plasma where fusion occurs, making the reactor smaller, cheaper and easier to build.

Last year, Tokamak announced plans to build a second prototype spherical tokamak – the ST80-HTS – by 2026 “to demonstrate the full potential of high-temperature superconducting magnets.”

The next step is to build its first grid-connected fusion power plant, which is expected to be operational sometime in the 2030s. His big vision is fleets of modular reactors with an output of each 500 MW – enough to power around 85,000 homes.