Faraday Factory Japan signed an agreement to deliver superconductor tape for the demo stellarator magnet of Proxima Fusion

Proxima Fusion's first-of-a-kind power plant Stellaris will use high temperature superconductor magnets to confine the burning plasma

, /PRNewswire/ -- Proxima Fusion and Faraday Factory Japan have signed a contract for the supply of high temperature superconducting (HTS) tape. This delivery will help the leading European stellarator developer Proxima Fusion to achieve its next milestone - a superconducting demo magnet.

Stellarators are fusion machines which contain hot, ionized matter (plasma) within a magnetic field of remarkable strength and sophisticated geometry. Significant progress including the highest plasma triple product sustained for tens of seconds was attained recently with the W7-X stellarator, which is built and operated by the Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics (IPP) in Germany. Proxima Fusion, originally spun out from the IPP, is building on the record-breaking expertise of W7-X, combining it with advances in stellarator optimization, computational design and state-of-the-art HTS magnet technology.

After completing delivering its demo magnet in 2027, Proxima will focus on the delivery of Alpha in 2031, Proxima's net-energy demo stellarator, followed by the first-of-a-kind commercial fusion power plant Stellaris in the 2030s. Timely supply of high-quality HTS tape is essential to keep fusion on fast track. While it takes thousands of kilometers of superconducting tape to build a typical energy-positive fusion prototype, scaling up the fusion industry to commercial power will require millions of kilometers.

Since 2020, Faraday Factory has ramped up production by 10 times. The new HTS tape delivery contract is an important milestone, further strengthening the HTS supply chain for the nascent but transformative fusion industry.