COVER STORY | FUSION UPDATE
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Steady progress for ITER The ITER Council said the project had maintained steady progress in delivery of components, installation and assembly, despite technical challenges and the pandemic. Construction of ITER is funded mainly by the European Union with the remainder
shared equally by China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the USA. Many members contribute components instead of finance. In February, the European Commission confirmed continued European financing in 2021-2027 of €5.61 billion ($6.8 billion). Project achievements since 2020 include delivery of major components and progress in machine assembly. In January 2021, ITER assembly teams had successfully insert the cylindrical lower
cryostat thermal shield into the Tokamak pit. August saw the second vacuum vessel sector arrive from Korea — the second of nine
440-tonne sectors to enter the sub-assembly process at ITER, during which a sector is mounted on specialised tooling in the Assembly Hall to be associated with thermal shielding and a pair of toroidal field coils. This second sector sub-assembly will be lowered into the Tokamak pit in early 2022. In October, US ITER delivered the second of seven (six plus a spare) central solenoid modules. In November Japan delivered a toroidal field coil — its fifth, and the tenth received
of 19. In December, Poloidal field coil No.2 (PF2) became the second ring magnet to be
produced by the European Domestic Agency on site and the third to be delivered by Europe after PF6 (manufactured in China) and PF5 (already installed in the machine well).
First plasma is expected in December 2025, with the full operation of ITER planned for 2035. ■
● In December Tokamak Energy (UK) announced the design of very low temperature (cryogenic) power electronics technology for its superconducting magnets that should reduce costs. Tokamak Energy has developed a novel power converter inside a vacuum cryostat. Tests demonstrated a 50% reduction in the power required for cooling the high temperature superconducting magnets used in tokamak fusion reactors to contain and isolate plasma. The work was funded through the UK BEIS Advanced Modular Reactor (AMR) Feasibility and Development Phase 2 programme.
● Canada’s General Fusion announced a new partnership with UKAEA in June that will see it build and operate its Fusion Demonstration Plant (FDP) at UKAEA’s Culham Campus. The FDP will demonstrate General Fusion’s magnetised target fusion technology. Construction should begin in 2022 and last three years.
● Commonwealth Fusion Systems (USA) announced in December that it had raised more than $1.8 billion to build and operate SPARC, a net energy fusion machine, and begin work on ARC, a commercial fusion power plant. In 2021 CFS began construction on the campus that will host the SPARC building, a manufacturing facility and company headquarters. It aims to achieve ‘commercially relevant’ fusion in 2025.
● Helion Energy (USA) raised $500 million in November to complete construction of its fusion generator Polaris and has $1.7 billion in funding lined up provided it reaches key performance milestones. In 2024 Helion plans to be the first fusion device capable of demonstrating net electricity production. In 2021, it became the first private fusion company to heat plasma to 100 million °C.
● TAE Technologies (USA) is targeting net energy demonstration at its Copernicus facility in 2024-2025 and operation of its first prototype power plant, DaVinci, in the late 2020s. In November it entered into a three- year partnership with Japan’s National Institute of Fusion Science) to test the effects of hydrogen-boron (p-B11) fusion reactions. P-B11 eliminates the need for breeding tritium. Unlike tokamak machines which require deuterium-tritium (D-T) fuel, TAE’s linear design uses a beam-driven field-reversed configuration that can accommodate fusion fuel cycles that include D-T and deuterium-helium-3. It aims to connect the first p-B11 fusion power plant to the grid by the end of this decade.
● HB11 Energy Holdings (Australia) said in February 2021 that it had closed a pre-seed fundraise at $3.6 million. It aims to use laser technology to fuse hydrogen and boron-11 and patents have been granted in four countries.
Above: Poloidal field coil #2 left the on-site European manufacturing facility in December and was moved to temporary storage Photo credit: Iter Organization
The US released several tranches of funding to support commercial companies, although less than in previous years. They include $6.5 million to support work related to high-energy density laboratory plasmas and eight projects to encourage public-private collaboration provided through the Innovation Network for Fusion Energy programme, established in 2019.
18 | March 2022 |
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