Type One Energy's research in partnership with U.S. National Labs builds upon previous stellarator research by tackling the critical issue of scaling the technology to the size of a commercial power plant. Type One is also already working with the Tennessee Valley Authority (a US utility) to plan for their first commercial power plant.
The new physics design basis for the pilot power plant is a robust effort to consider realistically the complex relationship between challenging, competing requirements that all need to function together for fusion energy to be possible.This new physics solution also builds on the operating characteristics of high-performing stellarator fusion technology – a stellarator being a machine that uses complex, helical magnetic fields to confine the plasma, thereby enabling scientists to control it and create suitable conditions for fusion. This technology is already being used with success on the world’s largest research stellarator, the Wendelstein 7-X, located in Germany, but the challenge embraced by Type One Energy’s new design is how to scale it up to a pilot plant.