Oxford’s Tokamak Energy unveils major testing milestone with its fusion magnet system
Oxford’s Tokamak Energy revealed it has achieved a major milestone with its fusion magnet system with the ground-breaking equipment passing important temperature tests.
Demo4 is being built to replicate fusion energy power plant forces and must confine and control the extremely hot hydrogen fuel used.
The finished system will be a complete balanced set of magnets with an incredible 12 million amps of electricity running through its central column.
READ MORE: Tokamak Energy offers first look at planned fusion power plant
Tokamak said it had now "successfully validated" electromagnetic current test results on the first of 14 toroidal field (TF) limbs in liquid nitrogen.
The performance of the superconducting TF limb at minus 200 degrees Celsius was assessed, which included examining the resistance of the joints required to pass the operational current between coils.
"A magnet system of this kind has never been built before so for the first toroidal field limb to perform as we expected under rigorous cryogenic electromagnetic current testing is a huge achievement," said Dr Rod Bateman, Tokamak Energy's magnet development manager.
"We now move forward to the next stage with great confidence in our manufacturing process on the path to delivering clean, secure and affordable fusion power in the 2030s."
The test results are to be presented at the MT-28 International Magnet Technology Conference in Provence, France.
Demo4 will consist of 44 individual magnetic coils using 38km of 12mm wide high temperature superconducting (HTS) tape, which carries currents with zero electrical resistance and requires five times less cooling power than traditional superconducting materials.
Final Demo4 assembly and testing at Tokamak Energy’s headquarters in Milton Park, near Oxford, will take place in 2024.
Tokamak Energy has also announced that it is co-hosting with Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, UAE, a first-of-its-kind "Focus on Fusion" event from 19-21 September at the university's main campus.
It comes as fusion technology is set to be key theme at UAE’s COP28 in Dubai later this year.
Tokamak Energy is a leading global commercial fusion energy company based near Oxford.
It was founded in 2009 as a spin-off from UK Atomic Energy Authority and currently employs a growing team of more than 250 people with experts from the UK and around the world.
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