Tokamak Energy teams up with the U.S. and U.K. for $52M fusion project

The funding, announced on December 5, is being evenly divided among all three partners in the project, which will see the inner wall of Tokamak Energy’s ST40 tokamak device coated with lithium. It is hoped that the lithium coating will enable fusion conditions with good confinement that is compatible with sustainment for long durations in a future fusion pilot plant. The project is set to start in 2025.

“Our high-field spherical tokamak ST40 has achieved impressive results in recent years, and we are thrilled to commence ST40’s new mission through this strong public private partnership,” said Warrick Matthews, chief executive officer of Tokamak Energy. “This program will advance fusion science and technology for spherical tokamaks and the industry more broadly, in pursuit of a common goal to deliver fusion power.”

In 2022, the ST40 reached a plasma ion temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius, over six times hotter than the center of the sun and considered the threshold for fusion energy.

Collaboration across the pond: In December 2023, the DOE and DESNZ announced a fusion strategic partnership to advance both the U.S. Bold Decadal Vision for Commercial Fusion Energy and the U.K.’s Fusion Strategy. A major goal of that partnership is to establish shared access to and development of facilities needed for fusion research and development.

According to Tokamak Energy, through its collaboration with the DOE and DESNZ, researchers at universities, national laboratories, and institutes in both the United States and United Kingdom will be able to benefit from the research carried out on the company’s privately owned ST40 spherical tokamak.

Tokamak Energy, which was founded in 2009 as a spin-off from U.K. Atomic Energy Authority, is one of eight awardees of the DOE’s Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program, where the department partners with the private sector to advance R&D toward realizing industry-led designs for a fusion pilot plant. The company’s U.S. subsidiary, Tokamak Energy Inc., was established in 2019.