German startup wins accolade for its fusion reactor design

Proxima Fusion, a two-year-old, German nuclear fusion startup, has published plans for a working fusion power plant in a peer-reviewed journal, in what is being touted as a step-change in the race to generate limitless energy.

Today’s nuclear fission reactors create radioactive waste, whereas nuclear fusion releases vast amounts of energy, with zero carbon emissions and only minimal radiation. 

So-called tokamaks and stellarators are types of fusion reactors that use electromagnets to contain fusion plasma. Tokamaks rely on external magnets and an induced plasma current but are known for instability. Stellarators, by contrast, use only external magnets, which, in theory, enables better stability and continuous operation.

However, according to Dr. Francesco Sciortino, co-founder and CEO of Proxima Fusion, Proxima’s ‘Stellaris’ design is the first peer-reviewed fusion power plant concept that demonstrates it can operate reliably and continuously, without the instabilities and disruptions seen in tokamaks and other approaches. 

Published in ‘Fusion Engineering and Design,’ Proxima chose to share its findings publicly to support open-source science.

“Our American friends can see it. Our Chinese friends can see it. Our claim is that we can execute on this faster than anyone else, and we do that by creating a framework for integrated physics, engineering and economics. So we’re not a science project anymore,” Sciortino told TechCrunch over a call. 

“We started out as a group of founders saying it’s going to take us two years to get to the Stellaris design… We actually finished after one year. So we’ve accelerated by a year,” he added.

Founded two years ago, Proxima has raised $35 million in funding from the European Union and German government, along with $30 million in venture capital. The company aims to build a fully operational fusion reactor by 2031.

Its competitors include Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which is backed by Bill Gates’s venture fund Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

Ian Hogarth, a Partner at Plural, one of Proxima Fusion’s earliest investors, added in a statement: “When Proxima started its journey, the founders said, ‘This is possible, we’ll prove it to you.’ And they did. Stellaris positions QI-HTS stellarators as the leading technology in the global race to commercial fusion.”