First image of fusion power plant that could power 50,000 homes

Tokamak Energy shares first images of commercial fusion power plant using 200 MW effective tokamak reactor.

Exterior view of Tokamak Energy's experimental commercial fusion power plant design. (Photo: Tokamak Energy).

Tokamak Energy , a company based near Oxford, England, plans to build a test fusion plant around its ST-E1 tokamak reactor , which is expected to be ready for deployment in the early 2030s to demonstrate its ability to supply electricity to the grid. The project would open up the potential for 500 megawatt (MW) commercial plants around the world, New Atlas reported on April 12.

When a mixture of deuterium and tritium , two isotopes of hydrogen, is heated to temperatures hotter than the core of the Sun, they fuse to form helium and release energy that can be harnessed to generate electricity and heat. The plasma formed by the heating is restrained by powerful magnets arranged inside a circular device called a tokamak .

Fusion is extremely efficient, producing more energy per kilogram of fuel than burning fossil fuels like coal, oil or gas. One kilogram of fusion fuel releases the same amount of energy as burning about 10,000 tons of coal. According to Tokamak Energy, fusion offers advantages that other renewable energy sources do not. "We need reliable energy that can be harnessed all day long when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing, without requiring high storage costs. Fusion fills that critical gap ," said Warrick Matthews, managing director of Tokamak Energy.

Fusion is the opposite of fission, which occurs when a neutron hits a larger atom, exciting it and causing it to split into two smaller atoms, releasing energy. Unlike fission, fusion produces no nuclear waste and takes up less land. According to Matthews, fusion energy from this type of power plant is carbon neutral, safe, extremely efficient and produced with unlimited fuel from seawater. The plant can be connected to a conventional turbine to produce electricity and heat for industrial purposes.

Tokamak Energy has spent years developing its compact circular tokamak. In 2021, the company reached a plasma temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius using the ST40 tokamak. The company plans to build its next version, the ST80-HTS, at the UK Atomic Energy Authority's Culham campus in 2026. The ST80-HTS will be a prototype for Tokamak Energy's first commercial fusion reactor, the ST-E1, which will have an effective power of 200 megawatts and is expected to be completed in the early 2030s.