UK-based Tokamak Energy’s “breakthrough” magnet technology is being sent for testing at a US national laboratory where it will be exposed to extreme conditions to test lifetime nuclear fusion power plant performance.
Creating clean, sustainable fusion energy requires strong magnetic fields to confine and control hydrogen fuel, which becomes a plasma several times hotter than the Sun inside a tokamak.
Although most radiation from high-energy plasma neutrons will be absorbed by the tokamak’s shielding, the magnets must be able to withstand secondary gamma rays to maintain efficient power plant operations.
Gamma rays are a form of electromagnetic radiation, similar to X-rays. Tokamak Energy built and commissioned its specialist gamma radiation cryostat system – a vacuum device to provide thermal insulation for the magnets – at its Oxfordshire headquarters as part of its mission to deliver fusion power in the 2030s.