| Tokamak Energy, Ltd. | |
| Type: | Private |
| Industry: | Fusion Power |
| Location: | Oxford, United Kingdom |
| Num Employees: | 250 |
| Subsid: | Tokamak Energy Inc. |
Tokamak Energy is a fusion power company based near Oxford in the United Kingdom,[1] established in 2009.[2] The company is pursuing the global deployment of commercial fusion energy in the 2030s through the combined development of spherical tokamaks with high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets. It is also developing HTS magnet technology for other applications.
Tokamak Energy is a spin-off from the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy based in Oxfordshire.[3] As of 2022, the company had raised $250m, comprising $50m from the UK and US governments and $200m from private investors, including L&G Capital, Dr. Hans-Peter Wild, and David Harding, CEO of Winton Capital.
One of the company's first devices was the copper magnet-based ST-25; in 2015 this was upgraded with rare earth–barium–copper oxide (REBCO) high temperature superconductors (HTS) to the ST-25HTS.
The company's most recently developed and currently operating device is the ST40 high-field compact spherical tokamak, which reached a plasma temperature of 15 million degrees Celsius in 2018[4] [5] [6] and then in March 2022 achieved a landmark plasma ion temperature in excess of 100 million degrees Celsius,[7] considered the threshold for commercial fusion. A peer-reviewed scientific paper on the achievement has been published by the Institute of Physics.[8]
Tokamak Energy is a leader in HTS magnet development. In 2020 the company announced it had achieved a world record 24 Tesla field at 20K with its patented technology. In 2023, it announced it had built a world-first set of new generation HTS magnets to be assembled and tested in fusion power plant-relevant scenarios in its new Demo4 in-house facility.[9] It is also developing HTS technology for applications outside of fusion energy.
In October 2022, the UKAEA and Tokamak Energy announced a five-year framework agreement to collaborate on developing spherical tokamaks for power generation. The collaboration focuses on areas including materials development and testing, power generation, fuel cycle, diagnostics, and remote handling,[10] in the UKAEA's STEP machine.
In May 2023, the United States Department of Energy granted the company's US subsidiary, Tokamak Energy Inc., additional funding[11] through its Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program, which partners selected companies with U.S. national laboratories, universities, and other institutions to advance designs and R&D for fusion power plants, representing a major step in the U.S.'s commitment to a pilot-scale demonstration of fusion within a decade.
On 27 July 2023, Tokamak Energy announced a partnership with Sumitomo Corporation for the development, implementation, and scaling up of commercial fusion energy in Japan and worldwide.[12]