Tokamak Energy signs high temperature superconducting tape agreement

Furukawa Electric, Tokyo, Japan and Furukawa Electric Group company SuperPower Inc, New York, USA, are expected to deliver more than several hundred kilometres of tape to the Oxford-based company for the next phase of construction.

In a statement, Chris Kelsall, CEO Tokamak Energy, said: “Building our next advanced protype, ST80-HTS, is a key milestone in our mission to deliver commercial fusion as a clean, sustainable, low cost and globally available energy source. Securing partnerships with leading global suppliers such as Furukawa Electric Group strengthens our capability to address the twin challenges of climate change and energy security.”

The Supply of HTS tape developed and supplied by Furukawa Electric Group marks a key stage in the path to Tokamak Energy’s fusion pilot plant, which will demonstrate its generating capability in the early 2030s by producing up to 200MW of net electrical power.

HTS magnets enable the low cost, commercial operation and global deployment of spherical tokamak devices as they are essential for confining the fuel, which reaches temperatures above 100 million degrees Celsius. HTS tapes are multi-layered conductors made of strong and conductive metals with an internal coating of REBCO (rare earth barium copper oxide) superconducting material. The tapes are typically 12mm wide and less than 0.1 mm thick, containing REBCO deposited as a thin coating.

Production of the tape for ST80-HTS has now commenced at SuperPower Inc and the first batches have been delivered to Tokamak Energy. The parties are evaluating scale-up plans to meet the requirements for Tokamak Energy’s ST-E1 pilot plant and future commercial fusion power plants.

Keiichi Kobayashi, president & CEO of Furukawa Electric said: “Furukawa Electric Group has set out the vision toward 2030 as pursuing business to solve social agendas and to contribute to the development of sustainable energy-solutions. The new form of fusion energy is core to such goals, and we expect that our superconductors will play key roles in our collaboration between Tokamak Energy and Furukawa Electric.”