The cross-disciplinary AtomCraft team. (Photo: University of New South Wales)
Commercial nuclear power is illegal in Australia, and it has been since the 1990s. This past June, however, the country’s main opposition party announced plans to build seven commercial nuclear reactors in the 2030s and 2040s on sites presently occupied by aging coal-fired plants—should the party’s Liberal–National Coalition win power in federal elections next year. This statement has reignited a public debate regarding the potential role of nuclear energy in Australia.
GA’s Magnet Technologies Center. (Photo: GA)
General Atomics (GA) and Tokamak Energy Ltd. are each independently developing magnetic confinement fusion power plant concepts that would use a tokamak and high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets to confine and shape a plasma heated to over 100 million degrees Celsius. On May 30, they announced a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on HTS magnet technology for fusion energy and other applications.
Tokamak Energy's high-temperature superconducting (HTS) tape is used in its HTS magnets. (Photo: Tokamak Energy)
Tokamak Energy announced on February 6 that it has built a world-first set of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets, to be assembled and tested in fusion power plant–relevant scenarios.