TOKAMAK ENERGY'S BOLD VISION EARNS PLACE ON FUSION DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

Tokamak Energy Inc, the West Virginiabased US subsidiary of Oxfordshire's Tokamak Energy Ltd, has been selected by the US Department of Energy (DOE) for an award as part of its bold vision for commercial fusion.

The DOE’s multi-million-dollar MilestoneBased Fusion Development Programme was established to support private companies in bringing fusion energy toward technical and commercial viability.

As part of the programme selected companies will team with US national laboratories, universities and others to address major technical and commercialisation milestones for the successful design of a fusion pilot plant.

Warrick Matthews, Tokamak Energy’s Managing Director and Chief Commercial Officer, said: “It’s a fantastic endorsement of the strength of our team, technology and path to commercial fusion energy, combining the spherical tokamak with high temperature superconducting magnets.”

The company has also signed a memorandum of understanding with US-based General Atomics (GA) to collaborate in the area of High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) technology for fusion energy and other industry applications. The collaboration would leverage GA’s world-leading capabilities for manufacturing large-scale magnet systems and Tokamak Energy’s pioneering expertise in HTS magnet technologies.

Tokamak Energy is the only private company with more than 10 years’ experience of designing, building and operating tokamaks. It already has strong links with national laboratories in the USA, including Oak Ridge, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Los Alamos, as well as the University of Illinois.

It is also the first private fusion company to reach a plasma ion temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius in its ST40 tokamak, the threshold for commercial fusion. ST40 also achieved the highest triple product by a private company. Triple product is a widely recognised industry measure of plasma density, temperature and confinement, collectively a key measure of progress on the path to realising commercial fusion conditions.

Six days of Cheltenham Science Festival attracts 200,000 visitors

Cheltenham Science Festival ended its 21st year on a high after six days of talks, debates, workshops, demonstrations and discussion, helping bring science and technology to a wider audience.

138 speakers across more than 270 events discussed and debated every scientific and technological question of contemporary interest, from artificial intelligence to climate change, gender to mental health.

The Festival began with ChelTechne, an event for policymakers and other stakeholders that aimed to imagine new ways of thinking about artificial intelligence. Featuring figures from government, academia, the cultural sector and industry, the event represented the Science Festival’s contribution to the society-wide response to the challenges of digital technology.

Elsewhere the diverse programme included a family and educational strand that hosted 7,000 school students from nearly 100 schools in Gloucestershire and beyond, there were also free events across the town.

Almost 200,000 attended the Festival. From The Arcade – powered by BAE Systems Digital Intelligence – filled with retro and contemporary games technology, to the Discover Zone that made the latest scientific research accessible.

MakerShack offered visitors the chance to code their own robot and try out the latest technology.

Marieke Navin is Head of Science

Programming for Cheltenham Festivals, the charity which organises the Science Festival. She said: "Every year, we work harder to push the boundaries of what a science festival can do. “We are so proud to be able to bring science and technology to so wide an audience.”