Digital twin to help accelerate commercial fusion
Digital twin technology is being employed by Tokamak Energy to simulate tests that will help the company’s ST40 fusion machine resume plasma operations.
The Oxford-based company said the ST40 will mirror experiments simulated virtually in the modelling programme SOPHIA to improve efficiency and accelerate progress on the company’s roadmap to commercialising fusion energy in the 2030s.
Tokamak Energy scientists and engineers will now get maximum gains from all experiments without needing to test multiple scenarios in the physical machine.
ST40 is the first privately owned fusion machine to reach a plasma temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius, which is the threshold for commercial fusion.
For 2024, Tokamak Energy is aiming to break the record it holds for highest triple product, an industry measure of plasma density, temperature and confinement that is a collective gauge of progress on getting fusion energy on the grid.
In a statement, Dr Mike Porton, Tokamak Energy’s chief engineer, said: “Our new tokamak simulator SOPHIA will maximise gains from experimental goals, reduce risk and help perfect plasma scenarios quicker than previously thought possible.
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