On 11 January 2023 – Tokamak Energy has signed an agreement with leading Japanese and United States companies to supply specialist high temperature superconducting (HTS) wire for its new advanced prototype fusion device, ST80-HTS.
Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan and SuperPower Inc, New York, USA of Furukawa Electric Group, are expected to deliver more than several hundred kilometres of wire to the Oxford-based company for the next phase of construction.
ST80-HTS will be the world`s first high field spherical tokamak using HTS magnets at scale and will utilise HTS wire developed and supplied by Furukawa Electric Group. This is a key stage in the path to Tokamak Energy’s fusion pilot plant which will demonstrate the capability to deliver clean electricity into the grid in the early 2030s, producing up to 200 MW of net electrical power.
HTS magnets are an essential enabler for the low cost, commercial operation and global deployment of spherical tokamak devices. They are essential for confining the fuel, which reaches temperatures above 100 million degrees Celsius. Tokamak Energy and Furukawa Electric Group are respectively leaders in the fields of HTS magnet design and superconducting wire development.
Production of the wire for ST80-HTS has now commenced at SuperPower Inc’s facility in New York and the first batches have been successfully delivered to Tokamak Energy. The parties are now also evaluating scale-up plans to meet the requirements for Tokamak Energy’s ST-E1 pilot plant and future commercial fusion power plants.
Chris Kelsall, CEO Tokamak Energy, said: “Building our next advanced protype, ST80-HTS is a key milestone in our mission to deliver commercial fusion as a clean, sustainable, low cost and globally available energy source. Securing partnerships with leading global suppliers such as Furukawa Electric Group strengthens our capability to address the twin challenges of climate change and energy security.”
Keiichi Kobayashi, President & CEO of Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. commented as follows:
“Furukawa Electric Group has set out the vision toward 2030 as pursuing business to solve social agendas and to contribute to the development of sustainable energy-solutions. Also, we have laid out the environment-vision 2050, as our committed contribution for the future of the Earth. The new form of fusion energy is core to such goals, and we expect that our superconductors will play key roles in our collaboration between Tokamak Energy and Furukawa Electric.”
Source from:Furukawa Electric Group