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A Faster Way to Fusion A Faster Way to Fusion Tokamak Energy Ltd Company Overview April 2018 © 2017 Tokamak Energy © © 2018 Tokamak Energy Our Mission “To deliver to mankind a cheap, safe, secure and practically limitless source of clean energy – fusion power” © © 2018 Tokamak Energy Overview of Tokamak Energy • Privately funded spin-out from the world leading Culham Centre for Fusion Energy • Engineering Centre at Milton Park, Oxfordshire in a cluster of high tech companies • World class team of over 45 full time scientists and engineers • Collaborations with Princeton, Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, and Univ of Tokyo • Most downloaded paper ever in Nuclear Fusion Journal authored by Tokamak Energy • 30 families of patents so far focussed around the use of high temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets in spherical tokamaks © © 2018 Tokamak Energy The Opportunity A future supply of power independent of fossil fuels The largest addressable market on the planet Fusion is: • Clean – no carbon emissions or long-lived nuclear waste • Safe – inherent safety with no risk of a meltdown • Abundant – plentiful fuel (deuterium and tritium bred from lithium) • Affordable – our work shows that the cost of fusion power can be competitive Investment in fusion has historically been the domain of governments however there is an increasing interest from private investors © © 2018 Tokamak Energy Fusion in a Tokamak A tokamak is a donut-shaped vessel for creating hot plasma • £30 billion invested in tokamaks by governments in last 50 years • Method: magnetically trap a hot plasma in a tokamak and fuse hydrogen nuclei. • Two tokamaks, TFTR at Princeton and JET at Culham, have produced > 10 MW of fusion power © © 2018 Tokamak Energy The Challenge Traditional view for fusion power & tokamaks is that bigger is better (ITER) • Huge investment and timescales to progress Spherical Tokamaks are much more efficient than traditional ‘doughnut’ shape tokamaks. • This allows for smaller more compact designs But: there are space constraints at the wide centre of spherical tokamaks • conventional (copper / low temperature superconducting) magnets cannot create conditions required to produce fusion energy narrow © © 2018 Tokamak Energy The Tokamak Energy Solution Spherical Tokamaks High Temperature Squashed shape Superconductors Highly efficient High current at high field Fusion Power smaller, cheaper, faster © © 2018 Tokamak Energy Why We Are Different Privately funded • Freedom and flexibility to pursue the best technology Leading expertise in the sector • Operating in a well-understood field of physics • Building team of world class Scientists &Engineers Rapidly developed: • Working prototype devices • Know-how & Patents A plan to rapidly deliver a sustainable source of energy to replace fossil fuels © © 2018 Tokamak Energy Milestones to date • ST25: working prototype with copper magnets achieves plasma for three milliseconds. • This demonstrates that Tokamak Energy can rapidly build and test working prototypes • ST25 (HTS): first tokamak featuring all high temperature superconducting magnets • The device achieved continuous plasma for 29 hours – a new world record • ST40: the worlds first high field spherical tokamak • Construction and commissioning is well underway and first plasma achieved in April 2017 © © 2018 Tokamak Energy ST40 build & commissioning ST40: verification of plasma physics in a high field spherical tokamak (pulsed copper magnet) First plasma: April 2017 Science Magazine: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6336/360 BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08qlwlk © © 2018 Tokamak Energy ST40 build & commissioning Trial assembly of Toroidal Field magnets complete Outer Vacuum Chamber construction complete August 2017 © © 2018 Tokamak Energy First phase of testing – Jan 2018 © © 2018 Tokamak Energy The Way Forward 2017 2021 2025 2030 ST40 HTS Magnet Demo ST-F1 ST-E1 • Copper Magnets • Large scale HTS magnet • All HTS Magnets • Electricity production • 15 M & 100M degrees HTS supply chain • Industrial scale heat (to the grid) • Fusion conditions with development production • Final size and D-D • Validate magnet design • Could be used for parameters to be • Energy gain conditions and construction electricity generation determined with D-T Testing underway Design Phase Conceptual design Conceptual design 13 © © 2018 Tokamak Energy Summary Tokamak Energy is the only venture using the HTS-Spherical Tokamak route to fusion power A world class team Widespread endorsement A proven track record of successfully designing, engineering and operating tokamak reactors 2-3 years program to demonstrate critical technical milestones Development of partnerships & supply chain needed to meet requirements and timescales A faster route to fusion power © © 2018 Tokamak Energy VTT involvement Numerical modelling to optimise NBI system using ASCOT code 3rd year running VTT 2017 15 Neutral beam injection angle Neutral beams are used to inject heat, fuel, momentum and current in the tokamak plasmas During the ST40 design phase it was asked what kind of beam and what kind of geometry should be chosen Tokamak Energy commissioned a research project from VTT to study the various options and produce the answers VTT 2017 16 ASCOT calculations We found that it is not possible to maximise everything simultaneously Current drive is maxed at high energy to ~0.2MA (@1MW) limiting the non-inductive current to around 10% Maximal torque ~0.5Nm is obtained at low energy NB and could result in fast spinning plasma (reduced turbulence improved confinement) A Salmi et al, Fus. Eng. & Design 117 (2017) 14 VTT 2017 17 Ongoing project First ST40 beam system has now been selected and we continue with ASCOT calculations to predict its performance, beam duct losses and provide input of fast particle content and alpha confinement for TAE studies. VTT 2017 18 Future opportunities HTS Magnet Demo • Large scale HTS magnet HTS supply chain development Tokamak Energy business: • Validate magnet design and design, engineer and operate tokamak reactors construction - Hardware and services are needed ST-F1 - Power supplies, vacuum components, power banks • All HTS Magnets • Industrial scale heat - Conceptual designs, next step devices production • Could be used for - Remote handling electricity generation - Neutronics - High temperature supra conductors - Large effort at TE and MIT (50M€) on development and patenting ST-E1 HTS magnet and joining technologies • Electricity - Conventional copper coils production (to the grid) - Diagnostics • Final size and parameters to be determined VTT 2017 19.
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