In the USA, the startup Helion wants to build a running fusion power plant by 2028, and now a European startup is following suit: Proxima Fusion, a Munich spin-off of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, wants to build the first fusion power plant after the new Stellator in the 2030s -Complete the design and manage to build a power plant that produces more energy than it consumes. To date, the problem with nuclear fusion is that much more energy goes into it than is produced at the end (Trending Topics reported).
Next to Marvel Fusion, Proxima Fusion is the next German startup that relies on the future hope of fusion energy. To put it simply, it involves fusing two light atomic nuclei into one heavier nucleus – and energy is released in the process. As mentioned, Proxima Fusion, founded by former scientists and engineers from Max Planck IPP, MIT and Google X, wants to rely on a high-performance stellarator.
The principle of the tokamak is already better known; its principle is used in ITER, a fusion reactor under construction in Cadarache in southern France since 2013. Tokamaks and stellarators are two approaches that create a magnetic “cage” in donut-shaped devices. Stellarators use a complex set of electromagnets outside the plasma, while tokamaks combine external electromagnets with a large current inside the plasma, which simplifies the overall design but poses significant control challenges.
The stellarator would have the advantage of being able to deal with “the excessive heat stress on material surfaces”, while tokamaks can reach more than 100 million degrees – 10 times the temperature at the center of the sun. So far, however, stellarators have had disadvantages due to their more complex construction – at least until now. Because Proxima Fusion wants to build on the IPP’s Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X), which is considered the most advanced fusion reactor of its kind in the world. It was started in 2015 as an experimental facility in Greifswald, Germany, to demonstrate the suitability of stellarator-type fusion systems for use in power plants. And recently there has been great progress.
“Stellarators can now address the key problems of tokamaks and truly scale by radically improving plasma stability and achieving high steady-state performance,” said Francesco Sciortino, co-founder and
CEO of Proxima Fusion, in a broadcast. In order to take the first steps of the large-scale project, the Munich start-up has completed a first round of financing.
It is about 7 million euros, which come from Plural UVC Partners, the High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and the Wilbe Group. In the next twelve months, the main focus will be on completing the first draft of a fusion power plant. As a result, the startup will still have to raise large amounts of money to build the fusion reactor by the 2030s. For comparison: ITER in France costs 20 billion euros or more, the costs are shared by several countries. Due to technical problems, the goal of bringing ITER to full capacity by 2035 is unlikely to be reached.
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from the
Munich, May 30, 2023 – Proxima Fusion, a fusion start-up company developing fusion power plants
fusion power plants based on the stellarator concept has completed its €7 million pre-seed fundraising. The
Fundraising is led jointly by Plural and UVC Partners, which are part of High-Tech Gründerfonds
(HTGF) and the Wilbe Group.
Proxima Fusion is the first spin-off from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP). The
was created by former scientists and engineers from the Max Planck IPP, MIT and from
Google-X. The aim of the group is to develop a new high-performance stellarator in the coming years.
The roadmap envisages building the first fusion power plant of its kind in the 2030s.
Fusion is the process that powers the stars. To make them possible on earth, one can
confining high-energy ionized matter called “plasma” by magnetic fields. Tokamaks and stellarators are
are two approaches that create a magnetic “cage” in donut-shaped devices.
Stellarators use a complex set of electromagnets outside the plasma, while tokamaks do
combine external electromagnets with a large current inside the plasma, which simplifies the overall design
simplified, but poses significant control challenges. Modern devices with magnetic confinement
can already routinely achieve plasmas with more than 100 million degrees – 10 times that
temperature at the center of the sun. The possibility of nuclear fusion as safe, clean and rich
Using energy sources has motivated academic research in this area for decades.
The Proxima Fusion project stands on the shoulders of IPP’s Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X), the
is by far the most advanced stellarator in the world. Stellarators are constructed more complex than
than tokamaks, stellarators offer compelling features for a fusion power plant: they can
They can be operated in a stable state, have fewer operational challenges and represent an attractive solution for the
to cope with excessive thermal stress on material surfaces. However, stellarators have been around for a long time
has major disadvantages: poor plasma confinement at high temperatures, high losses of
Fusion products, difficult construction tolerances, etc. Many of these problems have been addressed
solved in recent years: “The experimental advances of W7-X and recent advances in modeling stellarators
Modeling have radically changed the picture,” explains Francesco Sciortino, co-founder and
CEO of Proxima Fusion. “Stellarators can now fix the main problems of tokamaks and really
Stellarators can now address the key problems of tokamaks and truly scale by radically improving plasma stability and achieving high steady-state performance.
Condition.”
Translated with DeepL