Advancing Fusion Technology

"You're using very, very powerful magnets to compress and shape a plasma."

Fusion reactions power the sun and stars. Could the same process also power a sustainable future here on Earth?

As Warrick Matthews explains, fusion could offer green baseload power for electricity and decarbonise some of our hardest to abate industries using high-grade heat. It could even enable the growth of AI.

In short, fusion could transform the world as we know it, but innovation will be crucial to its success.

Warrick is Chief Executive Officer at Tokamak Energy – a company working to develop fusion technology while also building partnerships that will aid its delivery as a clean and affordable energy source. This vision may be of the future, but real progress is already being made today.

The ST40 is a tangible example of such progress. Located in a facility just outside of Oxford, this spherical tokomak fusion machine builds on decades of extensive research to confine plasma in a magnetic field.

In February 2022 a breakthrough occurred when, using just a small amount of deuterium fuel, ST40 achieved 100 million degrees Celsius plasma iron temperature. This is the threshold temperature for fusion to occur.

While the device does not currently generate power, it is providing crucial data to advance the scientific basis for commercial fusion.

Continued technological advancement, education, and cross-sector partnerships are all vital steps on the pathway to deployment. In the private sector, a healthy balance of competition and cooperation is catalysing change.

Leading companies are already seizing the opportunity to finance fusion. In fact, Sustainable Markets Initiative Asset Manager and Asset Owner Task Force member Legal & General have an investment in Tokamak Energy. 

"The race is on," as Warrick declares, and both environmental and economic rewards can be found at the finish line.

To learn more about Tokamak Energy, visit their website.