Tokamak Energy Inc, the US subsidiary of UK-based commercial fusion research company, has been awarded funding to test speciality steel materials for the tokamak breeder blanket.
The funding from the US Department of Energy (DOE) from its INFUSE fusion energy development programme will enable the company to test the materials in extreme fusion conditions at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), where the country’s ITER project responsibility is being led.
The breeder blanket is a complex and key component of the tokamak, covering the inner walls of the vacuum vessel where the fusion takes place and subject to the high temperatures of the hot plasma, upwards of 150 million oC.
In addition to protecting the vessel and the surrounding magnets from the heat and high energy neutrons from the fusion reactions, its role is to ‘breed’ tritium for the deuterium-tritium fusion.
Have you read?
Tokamak Energy and UKAEA team up to drive fusion innovation
Time to speed up the energy transition says German Energy Agency chief
While deuterium is abundantly available in seawater, the supply of tritium is extremely limited, requiring that it is bred – with lithium as the source – to ensure its long term supply.
“Fusion promises to be a transformative global source of limitless, clean energy. It is crucial that we test and develop the most resilient and suitable materials for the design of future power plants as early as possible,” says Jim Pickles, Tokamak Energy’s head of materials.
“This new research using the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s facilities will push our understanding forward as to the likely lifetime of materials under relevant operating conditions, as we work towards demonstrating grid-ready fusion power in the early 2030s.”
The preference within the research community is for liquid lithium blankets and the new research is expected to impact this.
Tokamak Energy is focussed on the development of fusion with spherical tokamaks, which are believed to be more efficient than the doughnut shaped unit of for example ITER, coupled with ‘high temperature’ superconducting magnets.
The company, headquartered near Oxford, has had six previous grants from the INFUSE programme, the last in July 2022 to investigate liquid lithium in divertors at the University of Illinois.
Its ST80-HTS prototype is planned for completion in 2026, with scale-up to a 200MW pilot delivering electricity to the grid in the early 2030s.
