Developers: | Energy Singularity |
Date of the premiere of the system: | June 2024 |
Branches: | Power |
2024: Product Announcement
On June 18, 2024, the Chinese company Energy Singularity announced the completion and commissioning of a tokamak-type thermonuclear reactor on high-temperature superconductivity coils. The installation, called HH70, represents "the world's first commercial artificial sun."
Tokamak is a toroidal installation for magnetic retention of plasma in order to achieve the conditions necessary for the flow of controlled fusion. These are usually bulky and expensive systems. The technology proposed by Energy Singularity specialists allows you to significantly reduce the size and cost of such complexes.
ReBCO (rare earth barium-copper oxide) is used as a material for superconducting coils in the HH70. This is a relatively inexpensive compound in production, which will significantly reduce the cost of building tokamaks. In addition, it is claimed that it is possible to create plants that are 98% smaller in volume than traditional low-temperature tokamaks.
Controlled fusion is expected to provide humanity with a virtually limitless, clean and cheap source of energy. In the case of the Energy Singularity installation, the only obstacle is the Q efficiency indicator, which reflects the ratio of the amount of energy received and spent in such a system. As of mid-2024, the highest achieved Q value for tokamaks is 1.53. Energy Singularity expects to bring the Q value to 10 by 2027. High-temperature superconducting tokamak combines physical principles and engineering innovations, which is expected to significantly increase the cost-effectiveness of the device and accelerate the commercialization of thermonuclear energy.[1]