Fusion reactor hits 100 million degrees Celsius

The British company's spherical tokamak reactor achieves new achievements, moving closer to the goal of efficient fusion energy extraction.

The fusion company Tokamak Energy (UK) said on March 10 that it had set a world record for fusion reactions when it reached a plasma temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius. This company considers this to be the necessary threshold for energy commercial fusion.

ST40 spherical tokamak reactor.

Tokamak Energy's ST40 spherical tokamak furnace was built for experimental fusion - the reaction that helps the Sun and other stars produce energy. The reaction occurs when two atoms collide, forming a heavier nucleus and releasing a huge amount of energy. For years, experts have been trying to harness this process to bring an abundance of sustainable energy to the world.

The new achievement is an important step towards this goal, according to Tokamak Energy. The company also says it has achieved the highest temperature ever recorded with a spherical tokamak, the type of reactor needed for fusion. Several laboratories around the world have also recorded temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius in traditional tokamak furnaces, including Korea's KSTAR furnace and China's EAST or "Artificial Sun" tokamak furnace.

However, Tokamak Energy achieves this with a much more compact fusion device. The company also notes that it achieved such a milestone in just five years at a cost of less than £50 million.

"This achievement contributes to demonstrating that spherical tokamak is the optimal path to providing clean, safe, low-cost commercial fusion energy that is scalable and globally deployed," Tokamak Energy said. explain.

Tokamak Energy performs a new plasma measurement using more than 25 advanced diagnostic tools built into the ST40 spherical tokamak furnace. The results have also been verified by an independent advisory panel of international experts.

Tokamak Energy is upgrading the ST40 to test new fusion technologies. The new device, called ST-HTS, will be the world's first spherical tokamak furnace built to demonstrate the full potential of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets, and is expected to begin testing within a few years. next. It will inform experts in designing the world's first fusion pilot plant, slated to be operational in the early 2030s.