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12 hours ago
- Science
- Scroll.in
A new book shows how energy companies are creating commercial nuclear power to tackle climate change
The approach of identifying and investing in solutions addressing the biggest problems has led Future Planet Capital to invest in Tokamak Energy, which aims to develop commercial fusion energy for global deployment in the 2030s. In his book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, Bill Gates states that the key solution to avoid a climate disaster is to convert everything to electric power (e.g. automobiles) and make electricity from renewable sources. However, he mentions that solar and wind energy are not efficient renewable sources because of their high land use. Hence, according to Gates, we do not have enough land to get all our electricity from these sources. The solution that could make a difference is nuclear energy – especially energy generated by nuclear fusion. This might require some explanation. Nuclear fission is the process that regular nuclear reactors work on which involves taking very heavy atoms such as uranium and splitting them into smaller atoms to release their energy. Fusion, on the other hand, takes very light atoms, for example, hydrogen, and fuses those together to form slightly heavier elements, such as helium. Fusion is the process that powers the sun and the stars in the universe. In the very hot and dense conditions in the centre of the sun, the ions are being forced together with tremendous force such that they bond together and form these helium nuclei and release energy. This is facilitated by the incredible gravitational force that the sun has to create dense conditions that make this reaction occur readily. On Earth, we don't have powerful gravity. That's why exceptionally powerful electromagnets are needed to generate the forces required. In addition, temperatures around ten times hotter than the center of the sun are required to achieve fusion on Earth. To achieve such high temperatures, a vacuum chamber surrounded by powerful magnets which are designed to confine superheated plasma without touching the chamber's walls (otherwise it would melt) is needed. The chamber is called Tokamak. Fusion represents the holy grail for energy production. It offers us the potential of abundant energy produced in a safe manner without radioactive waste or carbon emissions. Hence, the solutions developed by Tokamak Energy could be the key contributors to achieving net zero targets and limiting climate change. Tokamak Energy's ability to achieve a landmark plasma ion temperature in excess of 100 million degrees Celsius, considered the threshold for commercial fusion, has significantly improved the probability of success. Fusion research in the United Kingdom continued after the Second World War ended. Several universities, including Oxford and Imperial College, contributed to the research. In 1965, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority created a laboratory in Culham, just south of Oxford, as a purpose-built home for Britain's fusion research program. Tokamak Energy was spun out of the UK Atomic Energy Authority in 2009 by three cofounders – Alan Sykes, Mikhail Gryaznevich and David Kingham. Future Planet Capital invested half a million in the Company by 2015. Since then, the Company has raised USD 250 million. While Future Planet Capital is well-positioned at an attractive IRR based on the most recent valuation round, this company still has a long way to go in terms of building a commercial solution. However, when Tokamak solves the nuclear fusion puzzle, it will unlock abundant clean energy and help us move away from fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions and, in turn, address the biggest challenge in the climate change problem. It will also likely lead to significant returns for Future Planet Capital. Complex research from universities is not the only idea that Future Planet funds. They also invest in addressing the large socio-economic challenges of our time. A great example of solving a socio-economic problem at scale is Guideline, which simplifies retirement planning with affordable, automated plans, eliminating hidden fees and paperwork. Their online platform democratises secure retirement access, especially for those previously hindered by high fees or complex options. Guideline was founded by Kevin Busque in 2017 after he sold TaskRabbit, a business he cofounded with his wife Leah, to Ikea. TaskRabbit operates an online marketplace that allows people to find freelance labour offering furniture assembly, delivery and handyman work. Guideline's idea was borne out of the pain faced by Kevin while handling the human resource function at TaskRabbit. While the large organisations were chased by fund managers, there were hardly any firms advising small businesses on how to handle the retirement plans for their employees. Kevin started work on offering the 401(k) plan, which is an employer-sponsored, defined-contribution personal pension account in the United States. By enabling consistent saving and financial stability, the company empowers individuals and communities, facilitating sustainable long-term savings. By the end of 2023, Guideline's streamlined approach attracted over 47,000 businesses, solidifying their leadership in the affordable pension plan market, with over USD 12 billion saved for retirement and significantly reduced fee costs. Future Planet invested USD 1.4 million in Guideline in Series B. Since their investment, the company has attracted leading investors such as General Atlantic, Tiger Global and NEA, raising more than USD 300 million. At the last round valuation, Future Planet's stake is valued at 5.8x of its investment. Investing in these innovative companies has led to a strong return profile for the Fund. Future Planet has already witnessed eight portfolio companies, including those invested in by its founders, become unicorns, a term used to signify companies valued at more than USD 1 billion. Hansen-Luke believes that the real returns are yet to be reflected. Events like the success of Tokamak Energy and the IPO of Guideline will massively change the returns. They will make a huge difference to society as well. In his journey to help high-quality innovations secure the capital and support needed to tackle the world's biggest challenges, Hansen-Luke knows this is just the beginning.
Asia Times
02-06-2025
- Business
- Asia Times
UK-Japan charting a joint nuclear fusion future
TOKYO – Tokamak Energy, the UK's leading nuclear fusion technology developer, has become part of Japan's energy innovation strategy. After several years of building relations with Japanese government agencies, corporations and academic and scientific institutions, Tokamak Energy established a subsidiary in Tokyo in February and won a 'green transformation' award from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in April. Tokamak Energy was founded in 2009 as a spin-off from the UK Atomic Energy Authority. Of the approximately ten fusion technology developers in the UK, it is widely regarded as the one closest to commercialization, although that appears to be at least a decade away. Tokamak Energy has been shortlisted for the role of engineering partner in the UK Government's STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production) initiative, which aims to build a fusion energy pilot plant in Nottinghamshire. In 2019, Tokamak Energy established a subsidiary in the US. As part of the US Department of Energy's Milestone Based Fusion Development Program, it is designing a spherical tokamak-based fusion pilot plant with the goal of demonstrating net energy output in the 2030s. Tokamak Energy also works with General Atomics, the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, the Los Alamos, Oak Ridge and Sandia national laboratories and the University of Illinois. Tokamak Energy's most prominent Japanese partners are wire and cable manufacturer Furukawa Electric, component producer and system integrator Kyoto Fusioneering, trading company Sumitomo Corporation and the University of Tokyo. Tokamak Energy is also part of Japan's FAST (Fusion by Advanced Superconducting Tokamak) fusion power development project, which brings together industrial and academic experts from Japan, the UK, the US and Canada. Tokamak Energy specializes in two technologies: the compact spherical tokamak fusion reactor and the high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets that make it work. A tokamak is a machine that confines a deuterium-tritium plasma using magnetic fields to force them together. In the 1980s, Alan Sykes, the UK physicist who was one of Tokamak Energy's founders, demonstrated that a compact spherical design was more efficient, stable and cost-effective than the older donut-shaped design. A spherical design is now the global standard. Sykes was the principal designer of the ST40 spherical tokamak. Tokamak is a Russian word, an acronym derived from the phrase 'toroidal chamber with magnetic coil.' The concept was formulated by Russian (Soviet) physicists Oleg Lavrentiev, Andrei Sakharov and Igor Tamm in 1950 and 1951. Tokamak technology has since spread around the world, with the UK, US and Japan racing China, the EU, Russia, India and South Korea to commercialize fusion energy. In January 2023, Tokamak Energy signed an agreement with Furukawa Electric and its US subsidiary SuperPower, under which the Japanese will supply several hundred kilometers of HTS tape for the magnets in Tokamak's fusion pilot plant. 'HTS magnets,' the three companies state, 'are an essential enabler for the low cost, commercial operation and global deployment of spherical tokamak devices. They are essential for confining the fuel, which reaches temperatures above 100 million degrees Celsius. Tokamak Energy and Furukawa Electric Group are, respectively, leaders in the fields of HTS magnet design and superconducting wire development.' In November 2024, Furukawa announced that it had invested about 10 million pounds (US$13.5 million) in Tokamak Energy, becoming its first strategic investor in Japan. This was part of a 100 million pound Series C funding round co-led by East X Ventures, a London-based firm that 'invests in early-stage, science-led companies with high-growth, world-scale potential,' and Lingotto Investment Management, a Netherlands-owned fund also based in London. The funding will support the expansion of its HTS magnetics business and ongoing work on the company's fusion pilot plant. Tokamak Energy has also raised capital from other private investors as well as the UK and US governments. Kyoto Fusioneering supplies gyrotrons to Tokamak Energy and other private and public sector clients in Japan and overseas. Spun out of Kyoto University in October 2019, it was Japan's first fusion energy startup. 'The gyrotron,' the company explains, 'is a high-power, high-frequency oscillation heating device primarily used for plasma ignition, electron heating, and plasma instability suppression. Kyoto Fusioneering has commercialized the gyrotron by consolidating technologies accumulated by national institutions, academia, and manufacturers, including the National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (QST) and the University of Tsukuba.' Sumitomo Corporation has a collaboration agreement with Tokamak Energy aimed at establishing a fusion energy supply chain and the realization of commercial fusion power plants. It is also investigating potential applications of Tokamak Energy's technology in other industrial sectors. Tokamak Energy's Plasma Physics senior technical advisor, Yuichi Takase, is a former professor of physics and complexity science and engineering at the University of Tokyo. In May, Tokamak Energy CEO Warwick Matthews and Director of Strategic Partnerships Ross Morgan visited Japan to meet with government officials, industrial companies and investors. In an interview at their office in Tokyo, they told Asia Times that the level of trust with the Japanese is very high and that the time and effort put into building relationships should enable them to navigate the long-term collaboration required for commercializing fusion energy. Matthews joined Tokamak Energy in January 2023 after a 24-year career at Rolls Royce. Morgan, who has led the effort to establish the company's subsidiary in Japan, began his career in 1996 at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, the UK's national fusion laboratory. On May 20 of this year, the Nikkei business newspaper reported that the Japanese government plans to revise its Fusion Energy Innovation Strategy to include a roadmap toward conducting the world's first test of a fusion energy pilot plant in the 2030s. The strategy, which then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's Cabinet approved in June 2023, identifies fusion energy as 'the next-generation energy source that can solve both energy problems and global environmental problems at the same time,' while ensuring Japan's energy security. Fusion energy, it notes, has the following advantages: (1) Carbon neutrality (no carbon dioxide emitted), (2) Abundant fuel [hydrogen isotopes deuterium, found in seawater, and tritium, which can be produced from lithium], (3) Inherently safe (nuclear reaction stops when the fuel or power supply is cut off), and (4) Environmental preservation (low level of radioactive waste that can be processed with existing technology). Fusion technology is of particular importance for a country with no significant reserves of fossil fuels, 'as energy hegemony will shift from those countries possessing energy resources to those possessing the technology, it will become vital to ensure energy security.' With that in mind, Sanae Takaichi, then-Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy, emphasized the need to create business opportunities by 'industrializing fusion energy.' Which is exactly what Tokamak and its Japanese partners are doing. Tokamak Energy's HTS magnetics business is organized as a separate division within the company called TE Magnetics, which aims to be the leading supplier of HTS technology not only for fusion energy, but for other applications including efficient power transmission within data centers, renewable energy, propulsion on land, in water, air and space, medicine and scientific research. The idea is to develop a commercial business that pays its own way while fusion energy is still under development. Tokamak Energy has 'spent more than ten years and over $50 million developing ultra-high field HTS technology that is robust, quench-safe, tunable, scalable and cost-effective.' Watch a presentation here by Principal Magnet Engineer Greg Brittles on the subject of 'What is 'quench' and how do we protect our HTS magnets against it?' Not surprisingly, this has helped the company raise capital. Commenting on the recent funding round, James Anderson, managing partner & CIO of Lingotto Innovation Strategy, said: 'We think the company is developing and scaling impressively and particularly admire its global reach in high-temperature superconducting magnet technology.' Furukawa Electric made low-temperature (near absolute zero) superconductivity a target of its R&D efforts in 1963 and succeeded in producing a composite fine multifilament conductor in 1970. In 1986, it turned to high-temperature superconductivity (HTS), making advances in cable composition and manufacturing processes until, in 2011, electric power from a thermal power plant could be transmitted over a single superconducting cable. Superconducting wire supplied by Furukawa Electric was used in the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) near Geneva, where Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN), the European Organization for Nuclear Research, discovered the elementary Higgs boson particle in 2012. HTS wires and cables conduct electricity with zero resistance at temperatures that are manageable. They are compact and feature both large transmission capacity and low transmission loss. According to Furukawa, HTS cable can 'reduce transmission loss by up to 77% compared to conventional cables using copper or aluminum.' In 2015, Furukawa joined a project supported by Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NED) to develop a superconducting flywheel power storage system that was connected to a large-scale solar power plant in Yamanashi Prefecture. Today, Furukawa sees opportunities for the commercial application of HTS technology in electric power transmission, transformers, power storage devices, electrical generators, smart grids, electric vehicles, ship propulsion and Maglev trains. Obviously, as Tokamak Energy CEO Mathews pointed out, this is 'not just a science project.' In 2022, Tokamak Energy's ST40 spherical tokamak set a world record plasma temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius, which is the lower limit for the practical generation of fusion energy. Above this temperature, deuterium and tritium can be forced to combine, producing helium and neutrons and releasing a large amount of energy. In 2024, Tokamak Energy announced an ST40 upgrade in collaboration with the US Department of Energy and the UK Department of Energy Security and Net Zero. Tokamak Energy's participation in Japan's FAST project makes this a trilateral endeavor. Follow this writer on X: @ScottFo83517667
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists make progress on ultra-futuristic device that could generate virtually unlimited energy — here's the tech that's bringing it one step closer to reality
Scientists may be one step closer to unlocking the virtually unlimited energy of nuclear fusion thanks to the development of a cutting-edge device that can superheat plasma. As Interesting Engineering reported, Japan-based Kyoto Fusioneering built a 1-megawatt gyrotron — a device that generates high-power microwave radiation required for heating and controlling plasma in fusion reactors. The futuristic tool could be the key to helping Tokamak Energy, a private fusion power company in the United Kingdom, achieve sustainable, commercially viable fusion energy. "The new gyrotron will generate high-power electromagnetic waves for controlling and heating a hydrogen plasma many times hotter than the centre of the sun," Tokamak Energy said in a press release. "It will also be used to start up and drive plasma current." The company received the gyrotron in late December and plans to install it on its spherical tokamak ST40 this year. Once the fuel-heating technology is operational, Tokamak and several of its partners, including the U.S. Department of Energy, will begin testing lithium on the inner wall of the ST40 for a future fusion pilot plant. According to Tokamak Energy, the ST40 tokamak is the "most advanced of its kind in the world," achieving a record 100 million degrees Celsius (more than 180 million degrees Fahrenheit) plasma ion temperature in 2022. This is over six times hotter than the sun's core temperature and is considered the threshold for commercial fusion energy. The ultra-powerful gyrotron will further Tokamak's efforts to produce nuclear fusion for commercial use by 2030, as the International Energy Forum reported. The IEF explained that nuclear fusion generates nearly 4 million times more energy than dirty fuels such as coal, oil, and gas and four times more than nuclear fission. Since it doesn't produce carbon dioxide, other polluting gases, or long-lived radioactive waste, it's an ideal clean, low-cost energy source to potentially power the world in the future. And gyrotrons will likely play a major role in bringing sustainable fusion power to homes and cities. Interesting Engineering said that gyrotrons offer several benefits that can drive progress in fusion research, including their ability to superheat plasma and transmit microwave radiation through waveguides, allowing for more flexibility in positioning. The technology also reduces the size needed for the central solenoid — a key component in tokamaks that generates a strong magnetic field used to initiate and maintain the plasma current during the fusion process. Should the government be paying people to hunt invasive species? Definitely Depends on the animal No way Just let people do it for free Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. "A gyrotron, which uses Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH), solves one of the key challenges for a spherical tokamak – limited space for a central solenoid, which would otherwise be required to induce the plasma current," Tokamak Energy stated. Tokamak said it plans to use both its current neutral beam injection heating system and gyrotron heating on the ST40 to better understand the balance needed for future spherical tokamak pilot plants. Ross Morgan, director of strategic partnerships at Tokamak Energy, said, "We're excited to work with our partners Kyoto Fusioneering to add this important upgrade to our record-breaking fusion machine, and continue to operate ST40 to test and push new boundaries." Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
