The young European company Proxima Fusion has presented a project for a thermonuclear reactor called Stellaris, which it promises to launch within the next six years. The company was founded by physicists who previously worked on the German stellar project Wendelstein 7-X. With years of experience in the field of thermonuclear reactors, they are confident of quick success, promising to achieve a positive thermonuclear reaction as early as 2031.
Image source: Proxima Fusion
According to the developer, Stellaris will be the world’s first implementation of an integrated concept for a commercial fusion power plant designed for continuous and reliable operation. The company described the project in detail in a recent article published in the journal Fusion Engineering and Design. The project is based on advanced computational optimization of the reactor design (including the operation of AI and neural networks), high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets and quasi-isodynamic (QI) stellarator technology, which together brings fusion energy closer to the commercialization stage.
The Stellaris project is based on the results of the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) research experiment in Germany, the world’s most advanced QI stellarator prototype, which was built by the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics with the support of the German Federal Government and the EU. The project cost more than €1.3 billion (around $1.4 billion).
With its Alpha stellarator prototype, Proxima Fusion is on track to demonstrate clean fusion energy by 2031. In an interview with EE Times, Proxima Fusion CEO Francesco Sciortino said there will be a clear path to fusion in the energy grid within the next decade, ensuring Europe’s energy security and meeting the world’s energy needs.
The stellarator and tokamak are among the oldest and most studied types of fusion devices, each a variation of magnetic confinement fusion. Stellarators and tokamaks use powerful magnets to create a strong magnetic field that holds hot plasma in a specific configuration.
A tokamak uses a symmetrical toroidal vacuum chamber surrounded by magnetic coils. An important role is also played by the electric current flowing inside the plasma, creating an additional magnetic field. Stellarators use a different approach: plasma confinement is provided solely by external coils, without the need to induce a current inside the plasma itself. Historically, this was achieved using complex curved magnets, which was the main technical difficulty of stellarators.
At the same time, stellarators provide significantly more degrees of freedom and, compared to tokamaks, allow for high optimization. Although tokamaks are currently the leaders in the field of fusion energy, the successful creation of the Stellaris stellarator, if Proxima Fusion lives up to its promises, will mark the beginning of a new era in the development of fusion technologies.
The company emphasizes that the development of modern stellarators depends heavily on computational optimization, which allows for faster design changes before construction begins. Proxima Fusion filters possible design concepts and creates surrogate models for testing using modern methods, including neural networks based on physical laws and other machine learning technologies.
This approach speeds up development by allowing multiple designs to be efficiently explored in parallel. However, optimizing stellarators remains a complex, multidisciplinary task that requires consideration of multiple factors in science, computer modeling, and plasma physics. Achieving the best results in fusion energy production requires careful consideration of scientific and technical tradeoffs, which presents a significant challenge.
The compactness of the future Stellaris installation will be largely due to high-temperature superconducting magnets (HTS). This will be a key innovation that will increase efficiency and reduce the size of the reactor. With more powerful magnetic fields, HTS technology will significantly reduce the size of the installation. In addition, according to Proxima Fusion, HTS magnets are more stable and less sensitive to temperature fluctuations compared to low-temperature superconductors. This simplifies the requirements for cryogenic conditions and reduces the energy consumption of the system.
Чтобы в течение следующего десятилетия внедрить термоядерную энергетику в энергосистему, компания Proxima Fusion активно ищет финансирование, партнёров и работает над получением разрешений от регулирующих органов. К 2027 году компания намерена завершить проектирование «Альфы» — первого в мире термоядерного устройства, демонстрирующего коэффициент Q>1 (clean energy production) in a steady state. Fundraising is currently underway to build a prototype of the Stellaris model.