Tokamak Energy seeks to deliver ST40 reactor to UK’s grid by 2030

Tokamak Energy turned on ST40 for the first time and has officially achieved first plasma. The reactor aims to produce a record-breaking plasma temperature of 100 million degrees for a privately-funded venture. This is seven times hotter than the center of the Sun and the temperature necessary for controlled fusion.

With the ST40 up and running, the next steps are to complete the commissioning and installation of the full set of magnetic coils which are crucial to reaching the temperatures required for fusion. This will allow the ST40 to a produce plasma temperature of 15 million degrees – as hot as the centre of the Sun – in Autumn 2017.

Tokamak Energy’s has already reached the half-way point of its plan to deliver fusion power. It is focused on working with a smaller reactor design – called a compact, spherical tokamak – that enables quicker development of devices, therefore speeding up the process towards achieving their ultimate targets: producing first electricity by 2025 and commercially viable fusion power by 2030.

Tokamak Energy CEO, David Kingham said that Today is an important day for fusion energy development in the UK, and the world. They are unveiling the first world-class controlled fusion device to have been designed, built and operated by a private venture. The ST40 is a machine that will show fusion temperatures – 100 million degrees – are possible in compact, cost-effective reactors. This will allow fusion power to be achieved in years, not decades. He further added that they will still need significant investment, many academic and industrial collaborations, dedicated and creative engineers and scientists, and an excellent supply chain. Their approach continues to be to break the journey down into a series of engineering challenges, raising additional investment on reaching each new milestone. They are already half-way to the goal of fusion energy; with hard work they will deliver fusion power at commercial scale by 2030.