HTS Magnets
CFS has developed a revolutionary magnet that will enable the fastest path to commercial fusion energy. These magnets are the key technology for CFS, which is using the tokamak approach to fusion based on half a century of proven science. While the world has yet to achieve net energy from fusion (the requirement for a power plant), tokamaks have come closest. Tokamaks use magnets to confine a plasma in which fusion occurs. In the past, tokamaks used low temperature superconducting magnets that required the magnets to be enormous in size to achieve the magnetic field needed to achieve net energy. CFS is using new high temperature superconductors (HTS) to build these groundbreaking magnets that allow for significantly stronger magnetic fields that can be built much smaller and at dramatically lower cost than the traditional approach.
CFS has built a 20 tesla, large-bore magnet and which it demonstrated in 2021. These high field magnets are the largest of their kind in the world by a factor of 100-1000 in magnet performance. They open a widely identified transformational opportunity for commercial fusion energy. HTS magnets will be used to enable SPARC, the world’s first net energy from fusion device, and then ARC, the first fusion power plant. They also could have alternative applications that include wind turbines, MRI machines, and transportation.