Tokamak Energy gets US, UK backing for $52M fusion reactor upgrade

Just two weeks since raising $125mn in funding, British scaleup Tokamak Energy has secured backing from the US and UK to upgrade its ST40 fusion energy plant.

The US Department of Energy (DOE), the UK’s Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), and Tokamak Energy will jointly sponsor a $52mn upgrade to the fusion facility in Oxfordshire. 

“Fusion has the potential to be a clean and sustainable energy source, transforming how we power our country, and countries around the world,” said Kerry McCarthy, Minister for Climate at DESNZ. 

“This strategic partnership is therefore crucial to develop this new and exciting technology, and bring it into use quicker,” he said.

The ST40 is a spherical tokamak, a circular-shaped fusion reactor that uses giant magnets to confine superhot plasma and create the conditions needed to fuse atoms.

In 2022, the ST40 became the first privately owned fusion reactor to reach 100 million °C — six times as hot as the core of our closest star. The machine is under constant development as Tokamak Energy races to build something commercially viable. 

This latest upgrade includes coating the inside of the ST40 with lithium. Research suggests the element can help the walls of fusion reactors better withstand extreme temperatures.

But the new project is not just a fusion reactor makeover. “It represents a huge leverage opportunity for advancing fusion science and technology as a whole,” said the DOE’s Dr Geraldine Richmond. 

Under the agreement, researchers at universities and national laboratories in both countries will also be able to benefit from the research carried out at the ST40 tokamak.

The project is slated to commence next year. The $52mn in funding will be divided equally among all three partners. 

Tokamak Energy has already raised $335mn in pursuit of fusion power, making it Europe’s most well-funded private fusion energy venture. 

Spun out from the UK’s Atomic Energy Authority in 2009, the company is pursing a type of tokamak that is more compact than traditional doughnut-shaped reactors like the ITER fusion plant under construction in France. According to the company, this shape allows better confinement of the super-hot plasma where fusion occurs, making the reactor smaller, cheaper, and easier to build.   

Last year, Tokamak announced plans to build a second prototype spherical tokamak — the ST80-HTS — by 2026 “to demonstrate the full potential of high-temperature superconducting magnets.” 

The next step is to build its first grid-connected fusion power plant, which it hopes to pull off somewhere in the 2030s. Its grand vision is for fleets of modular reactors each with a power output of 500MW — enough to power approximately 85,000 homes.