Nuclear fusion – Britain aims to use fusion power in 2030s

nuclear fusion
Great Britain wants to use electricity from fusion as early as the 2030s

Tokamak Energy’s existing facility

© Tokamak Energy / PR

Nuclear fusion promises infinite and clean energy. London puts the pressure on. Together with the company Tokamak Energy, small commercial reactors are to be built soon. A German billionaire is behind the company.

The federal government is skeptical about any form of nuclear energy, Great Britain is counting on it. Smaller nuclear power plants of a new generation are to be built across the country and nuclear fusion – the “Holy Grail” of energy generation – is also being worked on. The special thing about it: Not only private companies are at the start, but also the state. Including Tokamak Energy. The company plans to develop a prototype reactor at the UK Atomic Energy Agency’s fusion center near Oxford, using the agency’s know-how and facilities.

Another special feature: the tokamak design is to be used there. In a donut-shaped ring, hydrogen is to be heated and compressed until conditions like those on the sun prevail. All large research reactors work according to this principle, for example ITER in southern France. The theoretical foundations of a tokamak reactor were presented by Soviet scientists as early as the early 1950s. As elegant as their design was in theory, the practical implementation was difficult. After billions in costs and 70 years of development, there is still no such reactor that produces energy on a sustained basis.

Many start-ups such as First Light Fusion from Oxford therefore choose a completely different way of generating energy. Instead of a continuous process like on the sun, they are aiming for a series of mini-explosions (Oxford start-up wants to produce cheap electricity with a fusion reactor in just ten years).

The donut shrinks

But Tokamak Energy stays true to the donut. Special magnets are designed to keep the plasma in check. They tolerate very high temperatures, so the reactor should be smaller and more powerful. The donut shape shrinks from a ring to a kind of sphere with an axis. The company’s magnets use the effect of superconductivity. The most recent advances in all tokamak systems are based on such electromagnets.

In March 2022, the company’s facility reached 100 million degrees Celsius, which would be enough for a merger. This year, Tokamak announced that it had built a first set of new-generation high-temperature superconducting magnets. Chris Kelsall, Tokamak Energy’s Chief Executive, said: “Our next device, ST80-HTS, aims to validate key technical solutions required to make commercial fusion a reality and will bring our world-class magnetic technology into present on a large scale.” This device is scheduled to work as early as 2026. The schedule is demanding. These findings are to flow into a pilot plant with a net output of up to 200 megawatts. Construction of commercial reactors is scheduled to begin in the mid-2030s.

Nuclear fusion: The result is open

The fusion technique is controversial. The name of the “Holy Grail” actually has a double meaning. He promises eternal life – here eternal energy. But many were looking for the Grail, but it was never found. There have been major breakthroughs in fusion technology in recent times, such as when the United States first succeeded in actually releasing more energy than was previously put into the process (More energy produced than consumed for the first time). So far, however, these are all just large laboratory tests. Only the next generation like the ST80-HTS will actually show whether a commercial fusion can be achieved in this way.

Money from the “Capri Sun”

Other critics believe that technology is too late for climate change and that other technologies must be used to replace fossil fuels. This objection is correct insofar as one cannot simply wait and hope that fusion will succeed. But should plans like Tokamak Energy’s come true, these reactors will play an important role in global energy production from 2040 onwards. The German government does not take part in this race. But behind Tokamak Energy is a German. Swiss-based billionaire Hans-Peter Wild has put £67m into the company. Of Wild’s many activities, the Capri-Sun brand is best known.

Source: telegraph; Bloomberg, Tokamak Energy

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