Last week, Tokamak Energy presented recent results from tests of its ST40 compact spherical tokamak prototype, at the American Physical Society Plasma Physics Conference.
The presentation led by Steven McNamara, Physics Programme Manager, focused on the progress that Tokamak Energy has made in increasing plasma ion temperatures in the prototype device.
Results showed that the ST40 is achieving the conditions required for the hottest plasma temperatures achieved in a spherical tokamak, a class of device that has significant potential for the delivery of commercial fusion power. A further presentation by Michele Romanelli concentrated on the integrated modelling of plasmas in the ST40.
“Conventional” tokamaks have achieved higher temperatures previously, but in much larger devices. The key to the development of commercial fusion energy is to achieve stable plasma at these high temperatures in compact devices, such as the spherical tokamak. Tokamak Energy is approaching the major milestone of 100 million degree plasma temperature.
According to Steve: “We wanted to share these preliminary results to keep the fusion community informed of our recent progress. This higher temperature is a key benchmark for commercial fusion, and one we are confident of achieving.”
